The Legal affairs committee of Parliament has given ministry of Education twenty one days to give comprehensive responses on why the ministry failed to fulfill the determinations that were made by Ombudsman.
According to Ombudsman Grace Malera, the Ministry failed to comply with 44 determinations that were made by her office on several complaints that were handled.
Malera told the Committee that the cases boarders around Maladministration and they date back to as far as 1999 to present.
She said, the determinations include reinstating some officers and paying arrears to some primary School teachers that were victimized.
While describing the conduct by the ministry of education as a miscarriage of justice to the victims, Malera also said it is sad that her office could not legally bind the determinations that were made.
Peter Dimba Chairperson of the Committee expressed displeasure with the ministry of education’s conduct saying this is injustice to the voiceless and vulnerable people.
“The ministry has had this laissez faire kind of altitude on complying with Ombudsman determinations which is very unfortunate” said Dimba.
According to Dimba, there is also need to strengthen the legal framework by amending the Ombudsman Act.
“There are some loopholes in the law which needs to be strengthened, for instance if the MDAs do not comply with determinations the law should specify type of punishment for such officers, so these are the areas we will be looking at” added Dimba.
