Delayed promotion: Senior civil servants seek Reps’ intervention

By Joshua Egbodo

Abuja

Aggrieved deputy directors in the federal civil service have approached the House of Representatives to intervene in the delay of their promotion by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).
The delay, it was learnt, was due to a lingering dispute following complaints of irregularities in the conduct of the promotion examination of 2014.
Mostly affected were deputy directors (administration), who were due for promotion to the director cadre for the past three years, but have been denied the opportunity to sit for the promotion examination by FCSC, based on a reported order of the National Industrial Court (NIC), restraining the commission from conducting the promotion examination.
The affected personnel under the aegis of the Concerned Deputy Directors (2011, 2012 and 2013 set), in a petition to the House Committee on Public Service Matters, therefore asked the committee to urgently intervene, to resolve the pending dispute, as well as ensure that FCSC is not hindered from carrying out the promotion examination, insisting in the petition that the court order was issued in bad faith.
The petitioners said they were constrained to seek the intervention of the committee because all attempts, including the efforts of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to ensure an out of court and amicable settlement of the promotion quagmire, have failed to yield tangible results since 2015.
On implications of the non conduct of the suspended promotion examination, they said there was stagnation on the position of deputy directors (administration), loss of morale amongst affected officers and distortion of the succession plan in the civil service.
“There is also a direct dysfunction in the structural functional relationship in the operation of the federal civil service, which will affect the administrative officer class up to the post of permanent secretary in the long run. This means that only officers outside the administrative officer class will be appointed to run the federal civil service, including the position of administrative officers at all levels,” they stated in the petition, while urging the committee to help in resolving the dispute.

Leave a Reply