Ombudsman Intervention leads to Administrative Actions at the Ministry of Water, Pension’s Department
When he retired after serving the nation in the Ministry of Water as a driver, Mr. William Mangison did not envisage that this was going to be the beginning of a journey which would frustrate him and deny him a peaceful retirement, thanks to unfair treatment and dereliction of duty by a public officer in the Ministry.
According to Mr. Mangison, he was engaged by the Ministry of Water as a driver in 1991 until July 2014 when he retired after attaining the compulsory retirement age.
Upon retirement, he sought to have his retirement pension dues processed but he was advised that his file was not available at the Ministry’s registry and was requested to fill new forms for reconstruction of a new file. He obliged by filling new forms for the reconstruction of a new file but four years later, a new file had not been reconstructed even after making several follow up. This predicament pushed him to lodge a formal complaint with the Commission in April 2019 to have the new file reconstructed and to facilitate the processing of his retirement dues.
The Commission by way of inquiry took up the matter with the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Water and Sanitation on 22 nd May 2019. However, the Commission unsuccessfully did several follow up through reminders and no response was forthcoming. In April 2021, the Commission exercised its power and issued a notice under Section 27 of the Commission on Administrative Justice Act and Regulations 17 and 18 of the Commission’s Regulation on 26 th April 2021 to the Principal Secretary(PS), Hon. Mr. Joseph Wairagu Irungu.
The PS in his response through a letter dated 10 th May 2021 informed the Commission that upon receipt of the Commission’s letter, an internal investigation was conducted and it was established that Ainea Malunda, a Principal Human Resource Management Officer in the Ministry was holding on a response made by the Ministry on 5th August 2019 on the matter.
The investigations found Mr. Malunda culpable for having
deliberately mishandled all the letters received in the Ministry in relation to the complaint and for occasioning unjustified and unfair treatment to Mr. Mangison.
The disciplinary action against him commenced on 5 th May 2021.
Following the intervention of the Commission, the PS secured the personal file for Mr. Mangison and submitted the pension claim to the Pensions Department for processing after computing his retirement benefits.
The PS further, held a meeting with Mr. Mangison and offered an apology on behalf of the office for unwarranted treatment and frustration occasioned to him by the said officer and made a commitment to the Commission that the Ministry will expeditiously handle complaints from the Commission.
“I wish to assure you and your Commission that my Ministry has always handled all complaints received from your office with outmost prudence as exemplified by our performance in all the performance evaluations carried out on us by your esteemed
Commission. We also commit to ensure that all correspondences from your office will be handled expeditiously,” read a letter from the PS to the Chairperson of the Commission, Hon Florence Kajuju.
Further, to enhance service delivery and to ensure that similar cases do not occur in future, the PS instituted firm administrative actions to streamline the Pensions Department within the ministry and made the following changes;
I. Reshuffling of the officers in the pensions section;
II. Submission of an analysis of all pending pension cases; and
III. Confirmation of the progress made on automation of Human Resource
(pension) files.
Mr. Mangison in a telephone call to the Commission on 12 th July 2021 confirmed to the Commission that he had received his dues.
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