Delayed promotion tears Federal Civil Service apart

Fresh crisis is brewing in the Federal Civil Service few days after the reinstatement saga of the former Chairman of defunct Pension Reform Committee, Abdulrahman Maina, as over 370 aggrieved deputy directors who have been denied promotion to the director cadre for three years by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) are now spoiling for a fight with the federal government.

The inability of the affected deputy directors to write the promotion examination to enable them attain the post of substantive directors is causing unease and tension in the federal civil service.

The current imbroglio that threatens to become a full blown crisis is the perceived inability of officers in the deputy director cadre to sit for their promotion examinations because of a lingering dispute that has arisen following complaints of irregularities in the conduct of the promotion examination conducted for deputy directors (administration) in 2014 by the FCSC.

The bad blood within the federal civil service has arisen mostly because the affected deputy directors (administration) due for promotion to the director cadre have remained stagnant on the same position based on an order of the National Industrial Court restraining the FCSC from conducting promotion examination for deputy directors.

The affected civil servants under the aegis of the Concerned Deputy Directors (2011, 2012 and 2013) in a petition to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Service Matters, a copy which was obtained by our correspondent, are therefore seeking the intervention of the House in resolving the pending dispute and ensure that the civil service commission is unencumbered to conduct the promotion examination.

In the petition dated May 19, 2017, the concerned deputy directors described the restraining order granted by the National Industrial Court and obtained by those who sat for the director (administration) promotion examination in 2014 as been in “bad faith.”

A copy of the petition was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday.

According to the deputy directors, by obtaining the order, the litigants have succeeded in stalling the promotion of officers due to sit for the director (administration) cadre examination for the past three years.

The petitioners said they were constrained to seek the intervention of the House 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.

In their petition to the House, the concerned deputy directors outlined the implications of the non -conduct of the suspended promotion examination to include stagnation on the position of deputy directors (administration), loss of morale amongst affected officers and distortion of the succession plan in the federal 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,” the petitioners stated.

The Concerned Deputy Directors are therefore, asking the House committee to facilitate the amicable resolution of the current impasse by ensuring that the grievances of all parties, including those of the deputy directors who wrote the disputed promotion examination in 2014 are addressed and that the FCSC conducts promotion examination for
officers in their category.

Henry Omunu, Abuja