8 November 2009
Parliament is investigating allegations of racism and corruption within the institution's research unit following an anonymous tip-off from unhappy staff about the running of the department.
The allegations are also contained in a dossier - drafted by the staff - which laments poor reports produced by the unit for Parliament's committees - which it claims are just a summary of "departmental annual reports".
Other allegations include claims of collusion between senior managers in allegedly corrupt practices .
Weekend Argus understands Parliament's internal audit department - under the guidance of the Secretary to Parliament Zingile Dingani - is probing the allegations.
Other allegations in the document include that the position occupied by the head of the research unit was not advertised and that the senior managers employed one of their own who had "no relevantqualifications".
It is further alleged that the official was promoted despite the fact that the quality of her work is being scrutinised by Parliament's investigators. Another case involves an incident which the disgruntled staffers feel was swept under the carpet.
"An African employee was called a k****r by a non-African employee. Despite the fact that the case was reported to (the manager), the relevant authorities failed to take any action against that racist colleague..." the dossier claims.
Tensions between junior researchers and their seniors are also spelt out in the document.
It says: "Researchers are unhappy that they are not doing proper research to empower the oversight functions of parliamentarians "
Other claims include details of "ill-qualified" senior researchers, with only undergraduate degrees, instead of a master's degree and five years' relevant experience. Qualified researchers were overlooked, it is claimed.
Other allegations include "job reservation" where a researcher - with less than a year in Parliament - allegedly was offered study leave for a year, on full salary of R24 000 a month. Meanwhile another person was hired to fill the gap.
Parliament's spokesperson Luzuko Jacobs confirmed that there was an investigation going on, but cautioned against the leaking of information to the media while the due process was under way.
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