Opening Remarks

By

H.E the Deputy Chairperson
African Union Commission

Town Hall Meeting with staff
Updates on Implementation of the Transition Plan and
Launch of the Skills Audit and Competency Assessment for holders of P4 and below graded positions

• Excellencies,
• R10 Members and
• Dear Staff at AU Commission,

Good afternoon and welcome to this virtual Town Hall.

1. I am also pleased to welcome to the AUC and wider AU family the Director General and the following other Directors who recently joined the Organization:

2. A very warm welcome dear colleagues and wish you all the best with your career at AUC.

3. This is the first Town Hall of 2022, and in the spirit of effective communication on the implementation of the Transition Plan, I would like to assure you that, we will continue to provide updates on the progress being made through Town Halls, Factsheets, Circulars, other meetings and so on.

4. The aim of this session is to provide progress update on the implantation of the Transition Plan and to in particular announce the launch of the skills audit and competency assessment for the holders of P4 and below graded positions.

5. As you are aware, the staffing of the new AUC structure will be made over three (3) years through either, the newly designed Merit Based Recruitment System (MBRS) or through the staff skills audit and competency assessment. The new structure has a total of 1,345 positions (excluding 35 positions for elected officials and political appointees).

6. As designed in collaboration with R10 and approved by Members States, the new Merit Based Recruitment System has, in the interest of fairness and integrity stringent filtering features. In fact, at the first filter stage, the system invites the candidate to fill out a screening questionnaire based on the competencies, education and years of experience prescribed in the Job Description (JD). Through that exercise the candidate has the responsibility to align his/her resume to the JD. At that stage, in addition to the screening questionnaire scores, the system will also filter based on age and gender, and rank the candidates from highest score to lowest. Up to this level, the process is completely free of human interference, except that of the candidate himself/herself.

7. In addition, based on the Terms of the Reference for the RSC and Ad-hoc Panel (both constituted by APRO B and approved by HE Chairperson), only the top 20 candidates generated by the MBRS can be shortlisted down to 6 candidates for interview process. At this level, a panel would analyze the top candidates’ resumes to confirm the accuracy of what they declared in the system. The Panel also would ensure that Quota policy provisions are satisfied. It is worth recalling that the Quota system is dynamic and applied Union-wide.

8. These are the merits of the reform process. I therefore urge all staff members to carefully fill the required parameters on the MBRS in line with the Job Description when applying for a vacant position.

9. The recruitment process to the vacant posts of senior management and critical positions is ongoing, and is anticipated to be completed by September 2022, in accordance with the Phase -1 of the Transition Plan.

10. I also wish to recall that, in line with the Policy Organs’ decision, all regular and non-regular staff willing to remain in the service of the Commission will be assessed through the skill audit and competency assessment.

11. I am therefore, pleased to announce that the firm tasked with administering the SACA process (Earnest and Young) has completed the skills audit and competency assessment for the staff holding P5 to D1 level Positions.

12. These Staff members (holding Grade level P5 to D1) have been assessed against the similar post they hold in the new structure.

13. The SACA process for the staff members holding P4 and below grade levels, shall commence on 20^th April and is to be completed by mid-June 2022.

14. I want to assure you that the skills audit and competency assessment is being implemented in a credible manner to ensure fairness and integrity of the process.

15. As such, the R10 members have been supervising the SACA processes as directed by the Policy Organs. My sincere thanks to them for diligently undertaking this task.

16. Regarding the placement of the staff on the new structure following the SACA outcome, as directed by the Policy Organs, a Promotion and Mobility Committee will be constituted.

17. This Committee will review the skills audit and competency assessment report and make recommendations to the Senior Leaders regarding placement of the successful Regular staff members on the new structure. The Committee will also provide reasons as well as options for the staff who cannot be placed on the new AUC structure.

18. On the placement of the non-regular staff members, the Policy Organs directed in February 2022 that an analysis on the outcome of SACA will need to be presented to them before these staff members can be placed on the new structure. The analysis will largely contain information on availability of member state quota and recommendation for placement based on SACA outcome.

19. On the voluntary departure, applications were received, and approvals were given to a number of regular staff who have served in the organization for more than ten years and met the eligibility criteria for the voluntary departure scheme.

20. For cost reasons and the need to retain talent (we may recall that the Policy Organs approved only USD2.4 Million for this scheme), priority was given to the staff members whose positions have been abolished, downgraded or upgraded and the opportunities for redeployment are limited. 

21. I will now give the floor to EY team and R10 members to elaborate on the preparations made so far and steps to be followed towards the launch of the skills audit and competency assessments for the staff members holding P4 and below job grade levels.

22.Representatives from the HR, Legal, Finance, Communication and other Directorates/ Departments are also available to field relevant questions.

I thank you.