The officially sanctioned secrecy that cloaks the operations of the Directorate on Intelligence and Security (DIS) has frustrated efforts to establish the veracity of allegations of a pay hike for security agents.
It was difficult whom to believe between the Deputy Head of Intelligence and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security over the allegations after the Sunday Standard was informed by reliable sources, reliable that security agents had their salaries upgraded or adjusted across the board.
The allegations come in the midst of a pay hike impasse between the government and public sector unions over the same.
Public sector unions are demanding a 16 percent pay hike but the government says it does not have the nearly P2 billion it needs in order to accede to the unions’ demands.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security, Segakweng Tsiane, under whom the DIS falls in her ministry, could not ascertain if indeed the DIS staff salaries had been adjusted. She told this publication she suspected that the security agents could have been given an increment, which is normal for every government department.
“I am not aware of any salary adjustments at the DIS. It is normal for salary increments to be effected at the end of the financial year for all government departments depending on performance results,” Tsiane told the Sunday Standard before referring enquiries to the DIS second in command.
The DIS director, Isaac Kgosi, did not take calls or reply to text messages.
The DIS deputy director general, Tefo Kgotlhane, while denying that members of the security organ had received a raise has, however, not taken kindly to the Permanent Secretary’s referral of our enquiries to his office.
“She [Tsiane] should have known better. Why would she refer you to us? There has not been any increment of salaries but promotions which were effected recently. This is normal for every government department,” Kgotlhane said.
He would neither say how many employees were promoted nor state the staff complement of the DIS ostensibly for purposes of national security.
