Black Hats find fertile ground in Africa

The destructive effects of fake news and disinformation have been in the news again recently, with examples of how the internet and social media can be weaponised to deliberately create harm.

Whether it is the hounding of royals and other celebrities, or the calculated acts of rogue States, there can now be no doubt the internet, once hailed as the new dawn of instant communication, bringing us all closer together, has a dark side being ruthlessly exploited by those with no other desire than to create confusion and mischief that serves their own ends.

There are all too many examples of how it can be commanded by those whose morals and ethics are entirely absent, and worse still, how they can find an audience only too willing to consume the evils they promulgate.

So it is more with sadness than anger I find another report on the subject, this from the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, based within the United States Defence Department.

Researchers have found that disinformation campaigns seeking to manipulate African information systems have increased fourfold in just two years, mostly designed to destabilise existing Governments, and often leading to deadly violence, military coups and the diminution of freedoms and democracy.

Africa is the last continent to fully embrace the internet and its social media offshoots — it also seems to be the continent where black-hat hackers can wield their evil influence most effectively.

They feed off instability, and many African regimes are vulnerable in this regard. The Africa Centre says this has had “real-world consequences for diminishing Africans’ rights, freedoms and security”.

It points the finger at Russia “as the primary purveyor of disinformation on the continent, sponsoring 80 documented campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries”. It believes fake pages and posts number in the tens of thousands.

Mostly targeted are those countries with fragile or failing democracies, encouraging authoritarian or military rule. 

While Russia leads the pack, other nations, including China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, are also active, according to the centre. There are also any numbers of so-called non-State actors.

One highlighted in the report, Team Jorge, operating out of Israel, has reportedly implemented disinformation campaigns to disrupt more than 20 African election campaigns since 2015.

Domestic groups, all with their particular agendas, complete the sorry picture.

While for many, Africa’s situation seems far removed from the institutions and protections that exists in the West, no one is immune, especially when a survey finds that 13 per cent of Americans still believe the Apollo Moon landings are a hoax.

From that kind of credulous base, it is easy to see how 30 per cent of the US population have been persuaded the 2020 Biden Presidential win was rigged, especially when the loser insists it is the case.

What we are seeing is a direct and persistent assault on Western-style democracies, using the very institutions that are cherished — free speech, freedom of the press — to undermine Governments and question the rule of law.

Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the European democracies may be far removed from the situation in many African countries, but as the revelation of mass hacking attempting to compromise Western electoral systems demonstrates, these problems can be ignored at our peril.

Yes, it can happen here.      

Officers may sue over UK deportations

LONDON (March 15): United Kingdom Civil Servants are threatening Ministers with legal action over concerns that senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the Government’s Rwanda deportation legislation.

The FDA union, which represents senior Civil Servants, has warned its members could be in violation of the Civil Service Code — and open to possible prosecution — if they followed a Minister’s demands to ignore a deportation ban on asylum seekers from the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg.

It has sent a pre-action legal letter to Home Secretary, James Cleverly (pictured), calling for clarity, with a request to either amend the legislation or change the Code.

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill states that it is for Ministers to decide whether to comply with decisions by the European Court to temporarily halt a deportation.

“The concern of the FDA and many of its members is that if Ministers instruct Civil Servants not to comply with an interim measures indication, they will be putting the UK in breach of international law,” the letter said.

The Government is expected to try to get the first flights off the ground before the end of the month, with people who have been refused asylum offered thousands of pounds to move to Rwanda voluntarily.

The proposals, which are separate from the main scheme and are understood to have been agreed with Rwanda, are designed to remove people who have no legal right to stay in the UK, but cannot be returned to their home country.

It will be aimed at individuals who do not have an outstanding asylum claim and are in a position to be relocated swiftly.

An intervention by a Strasbourg judge last June stopped the only attempted deportation flight from taking off for Rwanda.

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Call for new Department to lead Civil Service

LONDON (March 14): A report by the United Kingdom’s Institute for Government states the bureaucracy has failed successive Prime Ministers and calls for a new Department for the Civil Service (DCS).

The report, Power with Purpose, says the DCS would “take on the leadership, management and capability of the Civil Service”, including the teams responsible for setting and enforcing functional standards of practice, Civil Service talent, learning and development, and modernisation and reform.

The report says the Institute was usually the first to urge caution around such machinery of Government changes as "they can be disruptive and distracting…but we have concluded that the current structure inhibits effective delivery of Government priorities”.

The report recommends the creation of a senior First Secretary of State with Ministerial responsibility for the Civil Service to lead the new Department, replacing the role of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

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AI’s fake news ‘threat to democracy’

SEOUL (March 19): Launching South Korea’s Summit for Democracy, President Yoon Suk Yeol has described fake news and disinformation based on AI and digital technology as threats to democracy.

Meanwhile, some officials attending the global summit accused Russia and China of conducting malicious propaganda campaigns.

Mr Yoon said countries had a duty to share experiences and wisdom so that artificial intelligence and technology could be employed to promote democracy.

"Fake news and disinformation based on artificial intelligence and digital technology not only violates individual freedom and human rights, but also threatens democratic systems," Mr Yoon said.

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Controversial Israeli official in row over tweets

JERUSALEM (March 19): The official spokesperson for the Israeli Government, Eylon Levy, has been suspended, the Office of Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu says.

The reason for the suspension was not stated, although Israeli media speculated that Mr Levy had overstepped the line in responding to a tweet by British Foreign Secretary, David Cameron concerning humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The official was in the news a few weeks ago when the wife of the Prime Minister, Sara Netanyahu, tried to have him sacked for taking part in the judicial reform protests before the Israel-Hamas War.

This sparked outrage among both supporters and opponents of the Government at the time, but Mr Levy kept his job. Now, it seems, those who wanted him to go may have got their way.

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Finns hit back over Russian migrant push

HELSINKI (March 20): Finland’s Ministry of the Interior has drafted a Bill that would allow the Government to deny entry to asylum seekers and restrict the reception of asylum applications in circumstances where it is necessary to combat external attempts to influence the country.

Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo said Russia had orchestrated a flow of migrants to the Finnish border, effectively utilising asylum seekers and migrants seeking a better life to undermine national security and public order.

Ministers and senior Public Servants have acknowledged the Bill could come into conflict with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Head of Legal Affairs at the Border Guard Department of the Ministry of the Interior, Sanna Palo said the move was challenging legislatively, but that international treaties concerning the right to seek asylum were established at a time when no State was abusing them.

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Governor defiant over Argentine pay rises

BUENOS AIRES (March 19): The Governor of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires has announced a 13.5 per cent pay rise for State teachers, police officers and public employees in the capital.

The move, by Axel Kicillof, is in defiance of President Javeir Milei’s cost-cutting plans.

The Governor, who belongs to the Opposition Peronist Party, also announced an increase of 110 per cent in ordinary and extraordinary family allowances, a move that will benefit more than 100,000 families, and a 46 per cent increase in minimum retirement pension and non-contributory payments.

"We are making a great effort to protect the incomes of the people of Buenos Aires Province in the face of the inflation caused by the national Government's economic program," Mr Kicillof said.

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Security law targets new offences

HONG KONG (March 19): The Hong Kong Government has fast-tracked a new security law which targets new offences like external interference and insurrection, with penalties including life sentences.

The legislation was rushed through the pro-Beijing Legislative Council in less than two weeks, authorities saying it was necessary for stability. However, critics fear a further erosion of civil liberties.

Titled Article 23, the legislation expands on the controversial National Security Law imposed by China earlier.

Chief Executive,  John Lee said Article 23 was also necessary to guard against "potential sabotage and undercurrents that try to create trouble, particularly ideas of an independent Hong Kong".

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Officials in bid to stem Haitian violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE (March 20): Senior Haitian Public Servants and politicians are struggling to put together a Transitional Council to govern the island nation until elections can be held and a proper Government formed.

Haiti has been rocked by a surge of unrest since February when armed gangs raided a prison, releasing thousands of inmates and demanding interim Prime Minister, Ariel Henry resign.

Mr Henry has agreed to step down and allow the formation of a provisional Government, but negotiations have been slow despite pressure from neighbouring Caribbean countries and the United States.

At present the gangs seem to be the only authority in Haiti with police stations, power stations, public buildings and facilities attacked and looted, and bodies left strewn in the streets.

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Prosecutor blocks journalist’s release

KINSHASA (March 19): The State Prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of Congo has appealed against the six months sentence imposed on freelance journalist, Stanis Bujakera for spreading false information, barring his imminent release from prison.

Mr Bujakera was arrested in September after he reported that a prominent Congolese Opposition politician, Cherubin Okende had been murdered by Congolese military intelligence. Mr Okende's bullet-riddled body was found in his car in the capital, Kinshasa.

The journalist was finally sentenced to six months jail last week and fined 1 million Congolese francs ($A551). One of his employers paid the fine and he was expected to be released on the basis of time already served.

However, the appeal by the State Prosecutor, which had initially demanded a 20-year sentence, means Mr Bujakera could be behind bars indefinitely as the lengthy appeal process works through the courts.

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Senior Estonian officials get pay boost

TALLINN (March 17): The Ministry of Finance has announced that senior Estonian Public Servants, including the President, Parliament’s Speaker, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, are to receive pay rises of nearly 1o per cent

The three roles carry the same base monthly wage of €8,318 ($A13.696), and will now rise to just under €9,200 ($A15,148).

Many other senior Public Servants will also be getting pay raises, though in this case at around the five per cent mark.

The average gross monthly wage in Estonia for the final quarter of last year stood at €1,904 ($A3,135).

 

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Cyber-criminals are making prisoners of all of us

One morning recently I received a text saying that I had an outstanding tollway bill and faced further sanctions if it were not paid.

Next came an email ‘alerting’ me to the fact that $6000 had been withdrawn from my account via PayPal, and to click on the following link to confirm or challenge it. 

Finally, I got a phone call where a recorded message asked me to confirm the withdrawal of a considerable sum of money from my ANZ account. 

It was just another morning dealing with the incessant assaults of cyber-crime.

I no longer own or drive a car, I am not an ANZ customer and I could quickly check that nothing had been withdrawn from the accounts I have with my actual bank. However, these irritating interruptions to my day are now routine.

In the wider world we hear of new and ever more sophisticated scams. Cyber-criminals are especially active around the end of the financial year when people file their tax returns, but can pop up at almost any time.

I read recently of a long-running spoofing scam targeting customers of HSBC. The hackers have somehow managed to insert their texts, warning of a suspicious transaction, into a chain of legitimate messages from the bank.

It causes the recipient to panic and call a number that connects them to a fake fraud team. There is even an HSBC on-hold message.

I will not go into the depressing details of how much HSBC customers have lost though this one scam – just to say that it is in the millions.

When every new trick is revealed we get the same routine information: Be aware, frequently change your password, check back with your institution; don’t take offers at face value, block fake callers, the list goes on and on.

Governments say they are constantly trying to shut down bogus websites, only for them to pop up again in a different form – the cyber-criminals always seem to be one jump ahead.  

So it all boils down to us, the long-suffering recipients of this daily outrage, to protect ourselves. We have become prisoners, forced to lock ourselves behind expensive virus and malware protection, while the rogues circle around us, probing for the slightest weakness that will allow them to break in and rob us blind.  

It should not be like this. My generation has lived long enough to remember when it was not — when the sums in our bank accounts were written in a passbook which we could keep safely at home; when our pay at work came round in brown envelopes hand-delivered by a friendly member of the Accounts Department; when we could store our live savings under our mattresses if we wished.

We have been forced to use the internet, and employers insist we have a bank account in which to deposit our earnings. Of course there are advantages — it is more difficult to blow our wages on one drunken night out for a start. For this we are grateful, but it should also be the responsibility of Governments to protect us from the vulnerabilities it involves.

I will not go so far as a friend driven to distraction and raging over the hackers: “We know where they are — send one of these bloody drones and take them out.”

We actually do know where most of them are. According to Chainalysis, which is a blockchain data platform, North Korea is a hotbed of State-sponsored cyber-crime with stolen funds in the billions supporting the regime of Kim Jong-Un.

Russia and China are also in the business of stealing secretes and spreading misinformation and confusion on the web.

When nuclear weapons threatened to turn the world into ashes, Governments acted and sought to limit the threat. Cyber-crime may not present such an obvious danger to civilisation at the moment, but it is a danger nonetheless.

The time has come for the world to come together to face this problem. An international treaty outlawing the cyber-crime with an international ‘police force’ with powers of investigation would be a start.

Countries refusing to sign should be targeted and isolated, their access to the internet curtailed as far as possible.   

There will be plenty of arguments against this and maybe the current fraught international situation makes it impossible, but it should be on the table.

In the meantime we have to be on our guard for every time the phone rings, or the computer is switched on.  

 

Reaching out during Ramadan

It is wholly understandable that peak Muslim bodies in Australia have announced they will not attend State-Government sponsored Iftar dinners in NSW and Victoria. The respective Premiers are right in cancelling them altogether.

The fraught situation within the Australian community, with its ever-deepening divisions over attitudes to the Gaza War, would have only been worsened had the dinners, with their political connections, gone ahead.

Attendees would have been branded as being on one side of the argument and absentees the other. 

The fact that fighting continues through the Holy Month of Ramadan is bad enough, and the political dinners would only have inflamed tensions further.

In this context I was heartened to see the initiative taken by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in extending an open invitation to attend an Interfaith Iftar Dinner at its Baitul Huda Mosque in Sydney on 23 March – an attempt, as Grand Imam Kauser says, to build bridges in times of difficulty.

The fact that this invitation has come from the grass roots of Muslim Australia to all Australians, regardless of faith, or indeed, no faith at all; “of all perspectives” as the community says, is a bold initiative and one that deserves support.

I hope that it can be repeated in other towns and cities around the nation where Ramadan is celebrated and Iftar dinners held.  

In a world that often seems to be coming apart at the seams, it is good to see that in Australia at least, there are those who still want to reach out in the spirit of peace and mutual respect.

Games bonuses for restive public workers

PARIS (March 11): French Civil Servants will be offered bonuses to be deployed across Paris during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in an effort to avoid threatened strikes, Minister for Transformation and Public Administration, Stanislas Guerini says.

Eligible employees will get a bonus ranging from €500 ($A827) to €1,500 ($A2,480), in addition to their salaries, for working during the Olympics and the Paralympics, Mr Guerini (pictured) said. He did not provide details on the criteria for the payments.

The announcement came after a major French union warned of possible strikes, including at hospitals, during the Olympics, when a massive influx of people is expected in the French capital.

The social situation in France remains tense, amid recent protests from teachers, police officers and farmers that followed huge demonstrations last year against the rise in retirement age.

Last month, employees at the Eiffel Tower shut down one of the world's most visited sites for six days with a strike, demanding not only salary increases, but also better maintenance of the historic landmark.

The 135-year-old tower will feature prominently in the Summer Games. The Olympic and Paralympic medals are being embedded with pieces from a hexagonal chunk of iron taken from the historic landmark.

The Paris Tourism Office estimates that close to 16 million people will visit the region between July and September.

Mr Guerini said the Government would set up nurseries for Civil Servants on duty during the Games, and would allocate 1,000 places in summer camps to help working parents with children on school holidays.

In addition, employees with children would receive a bonus of up to €200 ($A330) per child, and €350 ($A578) would be allocated for each child to single-parent families.

“The whole country wants to avoid strikes during the Olympic Games. The Games have to be a success for the whole nation,” Mr Guerini said.

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President seeks to axe State news agency

BUENOS AIRES (March 11): Argentina’s far-right President, Javier Milei says he will close the State news agency, Télam, as it is “an instrument of propaganda”, suspending the Agency’s 700 workers on full pay and fencing off its headquarters in Buenos Aires.

Senior officials at Télam say they have been authorised to offer a voluntary retirement program. However, the workers have voted to reject it and have set up a website in an attempt to keep publishing.

Some onlookers say that achieving the Government's goal of closing the 80-year-old organisation will not be easy.

Lawmaker, Margarita Stolbizer said it was not possible to eliminate by decree bodies created by law.

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Lawmakers split over three-term limit

OSLO (March 8): Months of scandal and conflicts of interest surrounding top Norwegian politicians appears to be at an end after Parliament voted unanimously to “strongly criticise” former Prime Minister, Erna Solberg and “officially criticise” several other MPs and Ministers.

However, Parliament is split over a proposal to limit MPs to no more than three terms after proponents pointed out Ms Solberg had spent 34 years in Parliament and had become “entrenched”.

Socialist Left Party MP, Ingrid Fiskaa said Ms Solberg and her long-serving colleagues had formed an elite class of politicians living and working in Oslo who risked losing contact with the people who elected them.

However, 79-year-old Carl Hagen, of the Progress Party, said he felt no obligation to give up his seat in favour of younger politicians, citing the value of his experience.

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Contrasting results in human rights research

TBILISI (March 8): A survey of Georgian Public Servants has found them to be in strong support of human rights and equality principles, advocating for robust State responses to violations and discrimination.

However, the research by the United Nations Development Program also uncovered persistent stereotypes and prejudice, particularly in regard to gender roles, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, and LGBTQI+ communities.

The research also spotlighted several human rights that bureaucrats considered most frequently violated in Georgia, including the right to equality, living in a healthy environment, the right to life, inviolability of personal and family life, and inviolability of honour and dignity.

Notably, sex-disaggregated data showed that female Public Servants were better informed and more sensitive to issues faced by vulnerable groups.

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Strike ballot follows four-day week rejection

LONDON (March 9): The United Kingdom’s largest Civil Service union will launch a strike ballot for its  160,000 members after the Government rejected its claim for a four-day working week for the same pay.

The Public and Commercial Service Union also said the Government had refused to meet its demands on pensions, justice and job protection.

In refusing to consider the four-day week proposal, Cabinet Office Minister, John Glen said evidence in favour of it was “slim at best”.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson encouraged unions to continue to engage with officials as part of the usual process, saying this year’s pay remit guidance would be published in due course.

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PM in favour of shorter hours for women

KUALA LUMPUR (March 10): Current reforms to the Malaysian Civil Service Remuneration System will include shorter working hours for women employees to enable them to better care for their families, Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim has predicted.

"I will discuss with the Chief Secretary to the Government and the Director-General of the Public Service to provide flexibility for women, even with slightly lower salaries,” Mr Anwar said.

Mr Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said Malaysia would become the first country in the world to provide such flexibility to female Civil Servants.

“It is time to change the conventional thinking because there are women who have to leave valuable careers to take care of their families,” the Prime Minister said.

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‘Millions’ for women’s health research

THE HAGUE (March 10): Netherlands Health Minister, Pia Dijkstra plans to earmark “a substantial amount of money” for research into improving the treatment of health problems specific to women.

Ms Dijkstra was reacting to an earlier report by the Dutch Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians that highlighted the lack of attention to women-specific health problems, such as endometriosis, severe menstrual pain, menopausal complaints and pelvic floor problems.

She said there were 8.8 million women in the Netherlands, and sooner or later they would have to deal with health problems related to their sex — “without the proper knowledge we cannot treat them properly”.

It is not clear how much the Minister is setting aside for the research, but it is thought to be several million euros a year.

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Bureaucrats drafted for election training

SINGAPORE (March 9): The Singapore Government plans to draft in 50,000 Public Servants to manage its next General Election, not scheduled until November 2025.

The Elections Department (ELD) has already begun to single out key officials from the ranks of Government employees, with many saying they had been notified by email.

In a statement, the ELD said it appointed and trained public officers on an ongoing basis to perform election duties and to prepare the Public Service to conduct elections.

It did not respond to questions about the length of time between Public Servants being notified and an election being called.

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Photographers negative over passport plan

BRUSSELS (March 9): A plan to offer Belgian residents with free passport photographs in an effort to curb  identity fraud has run afoul of professional photographers who say it is a theft of their income.

Under the Live Enrolment project, spearheaded by the Federal Government, residents will no longer need to provide a passport photo when applying for identity cards or travel passes.

Instead, they can have their photos taken on the spot at the municipal counter, free of charge. This move aims to streamline the application process and enhance security measures against identity fraud.

However, photographer, Mieke Coppieters labelled the initiative as "robbery" and has launched an online petition emphasising the impact on photographers' livelihoods.

A regular update of Public Service news and events from around the world

 

 

 

 

Chinese graduates urged to join army

BEIJING (March 5): Multiple colleges and universities across China are urging their graduates to join the armed forces or find lower-paid jobs in rural areas, rather than competing for increasingly scarce jobs in the country’s Civil Service.

The Ministry of Education says about 11.8 million graduates are expected to come onto the jobs market in 2024, an increase of 210,000 on last year. Tertiary institutions are urging them to recognise that while it is improving, the economy is not nearly as buoyant as it was in previous decades.

They suggest graduates adjust their employment expectations and set realistic goals. 

Zhejiang Sci-tech University suggested graduates look beyond the Civil Service and other Government-affiliated institutions. 

The university said students could find jobs in small-sized enterprises, working at grassroots level, or join the army.

Observers noted that there has been excessively fierce competition for entrance into the Civil Service in recent years, resulting in a series of social problems, including the devaluation of diplomas, the high economic cost of education, and an unreasonable ratio of investment and return. 

Educationalist, Xiong Bingqi said universities needed to serve as a bridge between graduates and enterprises that needed recruits by organising more job fairs to help broaden the employment channels for students. 

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Big rise in officers shown the door

HONG KONG (February 29): The number of sacked Hong Kong Civil Servants has nearly tripled over the past six years, with authorities saying the stricter handling of serious misconduct cases has been the main cause.

Secretary for the Civil Service, Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said another reason for the surge in sackings was the failure of some Government workers to get fully inoculated as required during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a paper the Civil Service Bureau has submitted to the Legislative Council, the number of dismissals rose from 21 in the 2017-18 financial year to 52 in 2021-22, before reaching 60 in 2022-23. Another 38 Civil Servants have been fired during the current financial year.

Ms Yeung said other minor reasons for the sackings included violating the Public Order Ordinance, perverting the course of justice, assault, wounding, fighting and conspiracy to defraud.

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Staff ‘worse off than beneficiaries’

BELFAST (March 4): A senior Northern Ireland Civil Servant said some of his staff who administer benefits are receiving less money than the people they deal with.

Permanent Secretary at the Department for Communities, Colum Boyle said he recognised the Department of Finance’s hands were tied and that it felt very badly about the derisory pay increases it could offer.

Most Civil Servants have been offered a five per cent pay increase and a £1,500 ($A2,900) one-off payment for 2023-24. The lowest paid bureaucrats have been offered a 10 per cent increase to bring them up to £23,177 ($A44,886).

Mr Boyle said budget constraints had put intense pressure on his Department — “we are about 1,000 shy of the people we need, to do the work we need to do,” he said.

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Call for return to ethical government

LONDON (March 5): United Kingdom think tank, The Institute for Government, has urged political parties to commit to reform ethical standards for government ahead of the next General Election.

An Institute report has found that two thirds of the public do not think the current Government behaves to high ethical standards, with 45 per cent saying standards of behaviour in Government have got worse since the last General Election in 2019.

The report, Rebuilding Trust in Public Life, contains a series of recommendations for the next Government including refreshing the Ministerial Code, giving the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests more power, and creating proper routes for whistleblowing inside Government.

It also calls for the creation of a permanent Hub for Constitutional Expertise in the Civil Service, a reform it believes can be implemented straight away.

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Identity demands ‘may be unlawful’

MADRID (February 28): Spain’s Data Protection Agency has warned public and private institution against requiring too much identity information from the public, saying it is a risky practice that could infringe on individual privacy.

In a statement, the Agency said it was a frequent practice amongst various groups, ranging from public institutions to hotels and banks, to demand copies of individuals’ National Identity Documents.

“We advocate for a data minimisation principle, with less intrusive identification methods,” the Agency said.

“The National Identity Document holds sensitive information that could, if mishandled, facilitate cyber-crime and scams.”

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Later retirement for long-living officers

KATHMANDU (March 6): Nepal’s long-awaited Federal Civil Service Bill, finally before Parliament, proposes raising the retirement age for bureaucrats from 58 years to 60 – returning it to what it was in 1993.

At that time the average life expectancy for Nepalese was 58 years, while the World Bank now estimates it at 68.

Head of the High-Level Pay Commission, Lilamani Poudyal said this was one of the measures the Commission had suggested to reduce Government expenditure.

According to the Pension Management Office, the pension liability for the Civil Service increased from Rs37 billion ($A4.3 million) in fiscal 2016-17 to around Rs75 billion ($A8.6 million) in 2022-23.

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Former exile to head Government

CONAKRY (March 2): Guinea’s military junta has appointed former Opposition Leader, Mamadou Oury Bah as Prime Minister a week after it abruptly dissolved the Government.

The economist has been a prominent figure on the Guinean political scene since the 1990s. He served as Minister of Reconciliation in the early part of the century in the wake of a political crisis triggered by the killing of at least 130 people in union-led protests.

He later spent four years in exile in France after allegations he was involved in an assassination attempt on then President Alpha Conde in 2011, but returned after Conde pardoned him in 2016.

Guinea is expected to hold elections to restore democratic rule in 10 months.

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UAE to train Seychelles bureaucrats

VICTORIA (March 6): Seychelles and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at modernising and transforming the island nation's Public Service.

The UAE’s Deputy Minister for Cabinet Affairs for Competitiveness and Knowledge Exchange, Abdulla Nasser Lootah, told reporters the MoU would cover a three-year period, with joint action being taken to boost institutional capacities and Government practices. 

He noted that a group of 27 senior Seychelles officials had recently graduated from an intensive executive leadership program sponsored by the UAE.

"We are working on the next executive training program to ensure it is tailor-made to Seychelles requirements," Mr Lootah said.

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Runaway train causes rail chaos.

NEW DELHI (March 1): India’s State-owned railways has launched an investigation into how a fully-loaded freight train was left unattended, on a slope, by an engineer who forgot to pull on the emergency brake.

Social media channels shared videos of the driverless train zooming past several stations at high speed. The 53-carriage freight train, loaded with gravel, was on its way from Jammu in northern India to Punjab when it stopped in Kathua for a crew change.

Officials closed off railway crossings on the train's path to avoid accidents. Wooden blocks were then placed on the tracks to reduce the speed of the train and, eventually it was brought it to a stop.

In 2018, about 1,000 passengers had a narrow escape when their train, running from the western State of Gujarat to Odisha in the east, rolled about 11 kilometres without a driver. The driver had also forgotten to apply brakes at a station when the engine was being changed.

 

A regular update of Public Service news and events from around the world