Sunday Times reports that Parliament's CEO Xolile George stands accused of sidelining his senior managers by assembling a team of outside advisers to allegedly perform functions that have always been done by his executives.
Well-placed sources in the higher echelons of parliament told last week how George was running a parallel administration with advisers who were appointed outside the legislature’s organogram in positions not advertised as per parliamentary recruitment policies. But George has defended the appointment of the four advisers, saying when he took office in June last year, he found an institution with serious capacity challenges. He said he analysed the organisational structure and concluded that an overhaul was necessary. The four, whom some refer to as “his troubleshooters”, are change management, strategy review, policy review and built environment advisers. And George wants to appoint two more advisers, including one on “business optimisation”. But, the appointments have not gone down well with some in parliament, who accuse George of running a parallel organisation as most of the work being done by his advisers has always been performed by an army of 13 divisional managers. George’s new team also comes at a huge cost to parliament as each is paid about R1.8m a year, while a divisional manager earns more than R2.2m. Parliamentary officials also allege that George did not follow the proper recruitment process in hiring the advisers. Justifying his appointments, George said they were temporary and were consistent with parliament’s talent acquisition policy. He claimed that the institution’s human resources policy provided for “stand-in or urgent assignments”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Andisiwe Makinana at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
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