President Faure visits labour, immigration and civil status ministry |26 May 2018
President Danny Faure continued with his familiarisation tour in the public sector with a visit to the Ministry of Employment, Immigration and Civil Status (MEICS) yesterday morning.
The lack in manpower and office space were some of the main concerns raised and brought to the attention of President Faure during the visit where he was also informed on the renovation of the immigration department.
Accompanied by Minister Myriam Telemaque, principal secretaries Jules Baker and Alain Volcere and senior officials from MEICS and State House, President Faure interacted with staff and congratulated them, especially those with long years of service for their hard work and for contributing for continuous stability in the work place.
President Faure also had words of advice for the new recruits to remain disciplined and to follow the rules and regulations so as to maintain a stable career.
President Faure first visited the employment division on the 5th floor of Independence House Annex which houses the accounts, registry, HR and Budget management, IT, inspection and administration sections before he was guided to the other premises on the 4th floor which houses the labour migration, industrial relations, special employment programme, productivity unit, registration and advisory sections among others.
Form the 4th floor of the Independence House Annex, President Faure and his delegation headed to the 1st floor of the old Independence House to the Immigration and Civil Status department.
President Faure visited the different sections of the immigration department such as work permit, training and information, admin and port and airport sections. He then proceded to the ground floor to visit the customer service centre which houses the services for passport applications and transactions and the civil status section which handles birth certificates, death registrations, national identity cards and civil wedding registration.
President Faure then headed back to the conference room on the 3nd floor for a meeting with high officials of the ministry.
Following the meeting Minister Telemaque said that President Faure has given his full support to the ministry which he described as being very important and service oriented in the public eye.
Minister Telemaque said President Faure was made aware of the lack of office space especially in the immigration department which is also in a dilapidated state which has worsened over the decades and is in great need of renovation.
Work to renovate the department will start in July this year and will be completed in six months.
Minister Telemaque added that President Faure was also informed of the lack of human resources more specifically in the employment division where thirty posts are vacant
During the renovation of the immigration department at Independence House, the work permit and passport sections will be moved to the ground floor in the customer care services centre and the other units will move to the 6th floor of the Independence House Annex.
The principal secretary for employment, Jules Baker, said the need to have more staff is purely based on the increase in labour force on the market.
“The labour force increase in the number of young people, mostly those on substance abuse and who are jobless, need constant monitoring along with the large number of school leavers who are seeking employment from the special relief schemes,” he said.
The principal secretary for immigration and civil status, Alain Volcere, said his department is also experiencing shortage of manpower as most work is done manually to cater for the increase in the arrival of the number of visitors and foreign workers in Seychelles.
“We are in discussions with the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT) to digitalise the operations of other sections so as to facilitate both our workers and customers,” he said.
Apart from the renovation of the main offices on the first floor of Independence House, the Immigration department will also see added cubicles, a conference room and an interview room.
Our collection of photos show President Faure and his delegation touring the various sections of the ministry.
