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 regularised.
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 “regularisation window’’,
which the FCSC backdated to December, 2014.
“Through regularisation, 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 regularisation flying around the
ministries.
“No fewer than 530 people are being
regularised into the service from different backgrounds, including
unscheduled private enterprises. These atrocities are responsible for
the depletion of vacancies, which ought to be utilised 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 bastardised 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 demoralises 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.”
