EDUCATION TOP JOB DRAMA

Provincial head’s contract extension deemed ‘irregular’

THE Western Cape government’s decision to extend education department head Brian Schreuder’s contract has been deemed irregular.

This was one of the findings of a report by the Public Service Commission, following complaints that Premier Alan Winde granted the extension last year, which will end when Schreuder is 69 years old.

The report, seen by Weekend Argus, was signed off on July 31 after a complaint was lodged with the commission in February to probe the second two-year extension of Schreuder’s initial five-year contract. The first contract was extended in 2017. He is now 68 years old.

The Public Service Act of 1994 does allow for people older than 65 to be retained after their contract expires, but this needs to be done with the approval of the provincial legislature, a crucial part which commissioner Leonardo Goosen said in his report he was not provided with, despite explicitly requesting to see it.

The report found that:

The further extension of Schreuder's contract from April 1, 2019 to March 31 next year is irregular.

The exclusion of the provincial parliament (legislature) from approving the extension was a serious breach and must be brought to the attention of MPLs.

Winde is bound to approach the court to set aside the "irregular administrative act" of reappointing Schreuder.

It was also recommended that Winde approach the court to declare his cabinet’s decision unlawful and the contract irregular.

On Thursday in a sitting of the legislature, ANC MPL and ANC provincial education spokesperson Muhammad Khalid Sayed raised the matter, requesting that the commission’s report be discussed and for Winde to approach the courts for a declaratory order that sets aside Schreuder’s appointment.

“It should not have happened, this has just caused an unnecessary debacle and taints Mr Schreuder’s reputation,” he told Weekend Argus.

“If retaining him was about his experience, there are plenty of people in the department itself who are also experienced and capable to take up the position. They could have also looked outside the department to who can do the job. This was an opportunity to seek out women, people of colour as a means of expanding transformation.”

The department now appears to have posted an advert for Schreuder’s position, despite there being eight months left in his current term. The deadline for applications is September 7 and the position comes with a R1.9 million a year salary package for five years.

However, the commission’s report showed that the department had not advertised the post prior to the expiration of the first extended contract and instead resolved on a second extension.

“No evidence that Western Cape government advertised the post of HoD in anticipation of Mr Schreuder’s first two year and four month contract coming to an end on March 31, 2019,” read the report.

“Instead the evidence points to the fact that the further contract was approved as early as June 14, 2018, 10 months before the expiring of the initial contract.”

Winde’s spokesperson Bianca Capazorio said the premier disagreed with the findings and recommendations made in the report and voiced the reasoning behind this in a letter to the commission after receiving the draft report.

Reasons justifying the reappointment, Capazorio said, were not incorporated in the final report.

According to the Premier’s Office, advice was sought from the national Department of Public Service Administration (DPSA) on the issue and he was informed that a section that deals with this matter did not apply for an HoD who was on contract.

“The premier submitted a comprehensive response to the draft report on July 23, and highlighted that the extension of Mr Schreuder’s term of office without obtaining Parliament’s (legislature’s) approval was based on the advice that had been received from the DPSA in 2019,” she said.

“The premier also informed the commission that, in the light of the differing and mutually destructive views of the commission and the DPSA on the matter, he had requested the (Western Cape government) director-general to urgently initiate a process of consultation with the DPSA.”