13 Jun 2011

No sport on the taxpayer for Vanuatu public servants

1:38 pm on 13 June 2011

In Vanuatu, the new chair of the Public Service Commission, Jean Alain Mahe, has ordered public servants to stop taking time off for sport on Wednesday afternoons.

Mr Mahe says he won't allow the government to waste three million US dollars annually on paid time off during which the public service machinery shuts down.

Public servants have been taking every Wednesday afternoon off for several years to encourage weight loss through sports activity.