Director general's report card

When Vanguard Mkhosana was appointed Director General of the Department of Labour in 2004, he vowed to turn it into one of the best-performing government institutions. But two years on, very little suggests he is on the right track.

For two years the department received qualified audit statements from the Auditor General. The latest was tabled in Parliament last month.

Also last month, the Public Service Commission criticised the department for inadequate performance management. The commission said in its report that some senior employees have received performance bonuses without performance agreements.

Senior officials within the department who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity said the findings of the Auditor General and the commission were long overdue. They described Mkhosana "as an incompetent administrator" who got the director general's job because of his closeness to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana.

Mkhosana has also failed to address a long-standing problem of vacancies within the department.
According to its recent annual report, more than 500 posts, including key positions in areas such as statistics, research, programme management, finance management and human resource management, remain unfilled.

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