Gaborone — Government, currently, has 253 retired employees employed on contract in the public service, Minister for State President, Defence and Security Mr Moeti Mohwasa has said.

Answering a question in Parliament on Wednesday, Minister Mohwasa said the number of retired officers appointed on contract by government was at 309 since January 2024, but has since been reduced to cut reliance on retired officers.

He said of the 309, 22 were on F scale, 33 on E scale, 57 on D scale while 182, 4 and 11 were C, B and A scales respectively.

Minster Mohwasa said the officers were given contracts on 24-36 months, where there was demonstrated shortage of specialised, high-level and critical skills that were not readily available within the public service.

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Those skills, he said were medical specialists, engineers and technical experts, legal and judicial experts, specialised educators and training experts as well as accounting officers, such as permanent secretaries and ambassadors.

Mr Mohwasa explained further that contract appointments were utilised as an interim measure, while government advanced long-term capacity-building initiatives, including ongoing specialists training as well as succession planning and Leadership Development programmes scheduled for implementation during the 2026/2027 financial year.

Furthermore, he said the promotion or recruitment of other officers was not always possible on highly specialised or critical roles because of shortage of required qualified personnel.

He said due to the long lead time needed to build specialised capacity, retired officers were therefore re-employed only in these exceptional circumstances for continuity in essential services and to sustain government operations.

Tati East MP, Mr Tlhabologo Furniture had asked the minister to state the number of retired officers appointed on contract by government, their skills and the length of their contracts.

BOPA