Jonathan’s last-minute appointments was to tear civil service apart

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.”