18 Feb 2013

The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi says he is not aware that eligible agricultural scientific officers in the Ministry of Agriculture do not earn scarce skills allowance.

He said there were 373 agricultural scientific officers and 187 of them were paid scarce skills allowance while 186 did not earn scarce skills allowance because they did not have relevant qualifications.

Minister Masisi explained that to be relevant for scarce skills allowance, they must possess relevant and appropriate qualifications of Bachelor of Science in Animal Science and must also be performing the functions pertaining to livestock and livestock products.

The designation of scientific officer, he said, was a generic nomenclature across all the departments in the Ministry of Agriculture, saying he therefore did not find it necessary to conduct any investigation since there was no anomaly in the payment of scarce skills allowance to agricultural scientific officers in the ministry.

The minister was responding to a question asked by the MP for Chobe, Mr Gibson Mshimwe, who asked him whether he was aware that agricultural scientific officers in the Ministry of Agriculture did not earn scarce skills contrary to his answer to Question No.53 of November 17, 2011.

MP Mshimwe also asked if Minister Masisi would investigate this anomaly and report to Parliament. ENDS