Jonathan’s last-hour sacking and appointments destroys civil service apart

Firstclass newsline gathered that 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 firstclass newsline 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 firstclass newsline
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."
Firstclassnewsline.net