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Former President Goodluck
Jonathan
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The crisis in the federal civil service appeared to have
worsened with career civil servants protesting against the absorption of 530
aides and cronies of former President Goodluck Jonathan into the civil service
in the last days of the past administration.
The new recruits into the
service were also said to have been installed in high positions, from assistant
directors upward.
Already, six deputy
directors in the federal civil service are in court to protest against the
manner the last promotion examination to directors’ level was handled by the
Federal Civil Service Commission.
The FCSC released the
list of newly-promoted directors in October 2014.
The six aggrieved deputy
directors – Dr. John Magbadelo, Mrs. Ada Ihechukwu Madubuike, Mrs. Ganiat
Ayodele, Mr. Olusegun Oginni, Mrs. Janet Ayorinde and Mr. Otajele Musa – filed
an action at the National Industrial Court on March 26, 2015 to question the
exercise.
Most senior civil
servants are said to be unhappy with the FCSC, a situation which is said to
have been made worse by the Jonathan recruits into the service.
Sources told The Punch in Abuja on Sunday that
between the time Jonathan lost the presidential election of April 11 and the
May 29 handover date, 530 persons from different backgrounds had their
appointments into the civil service regularized.
A director in one of the
sensitive ministries told our correspondent that the FCSC, through ‘‘crafty
schemes’’, brought into the civil service “numerous aides of the former
President Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and ministers.
The director, who asked
not to be named, said, “These new recruits are placed on very high grades as
assistant directors, deputy directors, and directors.
It was gathered from a
reliable source that their appointments were made through a “regularization
window’’, which the FCSC backdated to December, 2014.
“Through regularization,
fresh graduate appointees were placed on Grade Level 12 instead of Grade Level
08, while some others were upgraded to very high levels in defiance of extant
rules. We now have letters of regularization flying around the ministries.
“No fewer than 530 people
are being regularized into the service from different backgrounds, including
unscheduled private enterprises. These atrocities are responsible for the
depletion of vacancies, which ought to be utilized for the promotion of
deserving serving officers in the federal civil service.”
Another aggrieved
director in one of the parastatals under the Presidency said that the FCSC had,
in the last six years, been under serious pressure by ranking politicians, who
insisted on giving jobs in the civil service as rewards to their cronies.
The director cited the
case of one political appointee, who was allegedly moved from Grade Level 09 to
Grade level 16, and subsequently moved three months after to the post of
director on Salary Grade Level 17.
He said this was just one
of the many recent irregularities perpetrated by the FCSC, “while the chairman
of the FCSC, Deaconess Joan Ayo, keeps saying that lack of vacancy was
responsible for the non-promotion of most deputy directors who passed last
year’s promotion examination.”
“Just anybody with the
right connection or big purse can be promoted or transferred to the post of a
director in the civil service today. These transfers are being done in
violation of the extant public service rules, which the FCSC published and
circulated to all government offices,” the official alleged.
Many of the directors,
who spoke to our correspondent on the alleged rot in the civil service, called
for the review of both the promotion exercise and “illegal” recruitment into
the high cadre in the government offices.
But the FCSC has denied
the allegation, saying it never recruited illegally into the civil service.
The Assistant Director of
Press, FCSC, Dr. Joel Oruche, said the allegations of illegal recruitment for
political reasons were all lies.
Oruche said, “At no time
did the commission employ aides of former President, Vice President, ministers
or any key political figure in the Jonathan’s government, either as a parting
gift or in compliance with a directive from the above-mentioned political
figures.
“The FCSC, in the
discharge of its mandate, has put in place, internal checks and balances in the
process of appointments and promotion. This guarantees transparent process that
checkmates activities and antics of fraudsters, who are in the business of
issuing fake appointment letters.
“For the avoidance of
doubts, FCSC begins appointments only when the Office of the Head of Civil
Service of the Federation has forwarded vacancies to it. These declared
vacancies are shared among the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
Appointments into the vacant positions are processed by honourable
commissioners representing respective states.
“After processing the
appointments by commissioners, all appointment letters are checked and signed
by the director in charge of recruitment and appointment while the Office of
the Permanent Secretary puts the commission’s seal on the letters.”
However, the
Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr.
Alade Lawal, confirmed that there had been rampant cases of illegal recruitment
into the civil service.
Lawal said the FCSC had
bastardized the recruitment process into the service on the spurious ground
that it was acting on directive from the Presidency to grant waiver to some
states.
He said, “But the
commission cannot hide under a Presidential waiver to recruit incompetent and
unqualified persons into the federal public service and impose them as seniors
on those with higher qualifications, experience and competence. We have never
had it so bad.
“One of the negative
results of this ill-advised policy is that directors, who have served the
country meritoriously for decades, cannot rise to the peak of their careers as
all manner of persons are recruited into the service to take over top
positions, including that of permanent secretaries and general managers.”
The ASCSN secretary
lamented that graduates with eight years post-qualification experience were
being drafted into the public service on grade level 16 or 17 because they have
connections with top politicians.
“These illegal recruits
are then made permanent secretaries after about two or three years. This is
very unfortunate as it demoralizes dedicated officers who no longer see any
future in the service. The ASCSN has engaged the FCSC on the vexed issue and
all indications point to the fact that the recruitments were deliberately
made,” Lawal stated.
He also called on
President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent steps to ensure that the FCSC abide
by the public service rules, establishments circulars, scheme of service, and
its guidelines on appointment, promotion and discipline in respect of
recruitment into the public service.
“If urgent step is not
taken to reverse this trend of illegal recruitment into the public service, the
system may collapse and the government will not be able to effect the type of change
it wants in the polity since the public service is the engine room that oils
the wheels of government.”
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