Flip flop over perm secs’ promotion
Arecent directive from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation [OHCSF] which has attracted public concern requires that directors in the public service who are eligible for promotion as Permanent Secretaries shall henceforth undergo promotion examinations. A circular from the OHCSF which was signed by the Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office (CMO) Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan said the presently available 20 vacancies for permanent secretaries are to be filled by directorate cadre officers whose eligibility for ascendancy shall be through examination along with other criteria.
In line with the principle of Federal Character which stipulates that every state of the federation shall have at least one permanent secretary, there are 20 vacancies as a result of retirement of incumbents from the service. The states with vacancies are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Ekiti. Others are Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto and the Federal Capital Territory.
Prior to 2009, ascendancy to permanent secretary from director’s level did not require examinations until President Umaru Yar’adua introduced it during his tenure. In 2015 however, with the advent of President Muhammadu Buhari as President, the policy was dropped only for it to make a comeback two years later. In November 2015 when Buhari reversed the policy, he promised that his administration would introduce a more elaborate screening process for selecting permanent secretaries given the widespread complaints by Cabinet ministers and other stake holders in government over what they called the incompetence of some perm secs.
The circular under consideration mentions the areas of assessment of candidates as competence in information technology - with specific emphasis on Word Processing, Spread sheet and Power point applications. Other aspects of the appraisal were to include interactive sessions between the candidates and a broad-based panel of experts and practitioners. Successful candidates from the examination are to then be subjected to the more traditional criteria of seniority, good service record, experience and federal character.
Public interest in the development draws from two angles. In the first place it is necessary that aspirants to office of permanent secretaries should be endowed with requisite competencies, as much as possible. Given the daily rise in sophistication of the challenges of the public service, the need exists to source the best hands for deployment in managing its processes. This condition justifies the adoption of whatever screening template that will optimise the prospects of getting the best hands for the job. After all the style of leadership in any organisation depends on the endowment of the leadership as nobody can give what he or she lacks. And nowhere is this condition more relevant than in the case of Permanent Secretaries who as the professional heads of the various MDAs are the leading lights of the establishment.
However the same imperative of ensuring the integrity of the position dictates that the process of selected perm secs should not be left entirely to the whims of political bosses who could bring in harmful personal and political criteria to the selection. That is why the process of selecting permanent secretaries should be properly clarified and codified.
Unfortunately the extant Civil Service Regulations (CSR) which provide guidance to public sector officials in the conduct of government business suffer a deficit in this regard and therefore need to be reviewed. Having been drawn largely from the General Order [GO] of the colonial and early post-colonial era, CSR features several regulations that are inconsistent with contemporary trends in public administration. Streamlining the selection of the top level leadership of the nation’s public service for the purpose of getting the best hands to foster a functional establishment is a much needed reform the faces the present administration. It should not however he pursued in a flip flop manner as we are now witnessing.