The Principal Auditor has uncovered “staggering” levels of absenteeism in government departments. In his latest annual report, James Posso revealed the shocking results of a study carried out in five government departments.

In one department, Buildings and Works, industrial workers were each taking an average
of 25 days sick leave a year, more than the normal annual holiday entitlement for private-sector workers.
In other departments the average number of sick days taken by workers was around 18 days a year.
Last year, the Principal Auditor took the issue up with the Human Resources Manager, who was asked to issue a circular asking heads of departments to ensure compliance with the regulations on sick leave.
But as recently January this year, the Principal Auditor found that eight out of 10 departments continued to perform badly in this respect and “certainly below acceptable standards”.  His obvious conclusion was that such high levels of absenteeism had “a serious negative impact both on the cost and delivery of the service being provided.”
To tackle the issue, he recommended setting out guidelines to manage sickness absence and address issues related to long-term absences. Among other recommendations, he said interviews should be held with staff returning to work after certain levels of absence.
Mr Posso also said line managers should be required to monitor and record absence levels, warning employees who take excessive leave that the concession may be withdrawn, leading to requiring a doctor’s certificate even for uncertified sick absence. He also said government should produce reports analysing sickness tendencies.
Speaking in Parliament during the recent budget session, Chief Minister Peter Caruana acknowledged that there was an issue with absenteeism in certain departments and that the Government was committed to tackling the problem.
However he cautioned that the vast majority of civil servants were hard-working and also disliked to see the system abused.