Verification exercise: ASCSN urges FG to pay cleared civil servants Dec. salary

 

 

By AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

 

 

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has appealed to the Federal Government through the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to expedite action to ensure that the salary of December of those affected by the recent verification exercise, but cleared, is not

delayed.

 

It also urged its members to exercise patient as it said it was doing everything within the ambit of the laws to ensure that the issues are resolved expeditiously.

 

In a Press briefing yesterday, the President of the association, Tommy Etim Okon said the workers were expecting the federal government to do the needful at the end of December.

 

He said “As you are aware that the physical verification exercise of the “17,000” Core Civil Servants who were delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) was concluded in October, 2023 and those involved were in the high spirit waiting for their monthly salary which was stopped since September, 2023 to be restored.

 

“As of today, only those who had earlier completed their verification exercise but were mistakenly delisted have had their salaries restored while 5,000 of civil servants still have discrepancies on their date of First Appointment and

date of birth.

 

“A total of 2,772 have been verified and forwarded to IPPIS for payment because there were no issues. The names of 5,000 workers who have discrepancies are to be forwarded to their DHR for confirmation.

 

“As we speak, there are six teams working tirelessly to ensure that the exercise is completed on time. It is advisable for a Public Servants to develop the habit of checking the HOS Website for regular updates. We have confirmed that the salary for the month of November, 2023 is concluded, therefore, those affected will not be able to get their salary for the month of November. However, effort is been made by the HOSF to ensure that those cleared will get their salaries for December, 2023

including the arrears from September.

 

“We appeal to the Federal Government through the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to expedite action to ensure that the salary of December is not

delayed while we urge our members to exercise patient as we are doing

everything within the ambit of the laws to ensure that the issues are resolved expeditiously.

 

“Gentlemen of the press, let me also invite your attention to what we call miscarriage of facts by the social media handlers on the recent promotion examination for Directors aspiring the office of the Permanent Secretaries and faceless group called “senior civil servants”.

 

“We have followed with great concern and dismay, recent publications in a section of the social media claiming that civil servants are called for the cancelation of the promotion exams for Directors aspiring for the position of Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service.

 

“The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria is a registered and recognized trade union listed in the Third Schedule of the Trade Unions Act as well as by the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette.

 

“Therefore, it is absolutely unacceptable and questionable for the purported group to propagate the alleged comments of faceless individuals who claims to be civil servants as though their opinions are those of the entirety of the service”.

 

Speaking further, the association president said: “What is more disturbing, is the demand of the group to circumvent meritocracy in the civil service with regards to the very critical task of selecting eligible Directors for appointment to the post of Permanent

Secretary.The question is, who in a sane and contemporary clime does that?

 

“It will be recalled that Chapter 2, Sections 020811-020813 on promotion in the Revised Public Service Rules prescribes the eligibility criteria and selection process for the post of Permanent Secretary as follows:

 

“The candidate must: a. be a Director on Grade Level (GL) 17 and in the main stream of the Federal Civil Service; have been verified on the IPPIS portal/ platform as having been confirmed as a staff of the Federal Government of Nigeria; be at least two (2) years on the post of Director;

 

Others he said was that the candidates must not be retiring on or before the 31st of December of the following year; must provide proof of indigeneship of the State where vacancy exists; Indigeneship of a State must not be by marriage in case of a female Civil Servant; and not have a pending disciplinary action against him;.

 

In addition, he said “!the PSR states that the selection shall be through competitive examination process including but not limited to written examination, test of ICT proficiency and oral interview and Resource persons from the Civil/Public Service and Private institutions may be involved in the selection process.

 

“It is expected that when you rise in your career as a director, you have gotten to the pinnacle of your career. Hence, the position of Permanent Secretary is another kettle of fish, which requires greater responsibility and a broader scope of competence. We are yet to understand how government projects and activities are to be driven effectively without having in place the best hands and brains.

 

“‘We have observed with keen interest, the policy thrust and service delivery oriented drive of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration and it is clear that Mr. President has zero tolerance for mediocrity at any level of governance in the Public Service.

 

“The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria shares this resolves and attitude of His Excellency, President Tinubu because the Association stands for professionalism and excellence”

 

He noted that “Overtime, the Civil Service has suffered exponential decadence of its pool of highly skilled and !knowledgeable officers.

 

“We cannot continue to pay lip service to the need to scaleup the quality of the civil servants especially those at the senior level who are expected to demonstrate impeccable character and capability to drive government projects and programmes.

 

“A situation where only 20 candidates out of 85 demonstrated the requisite knowledge and skill at the written examination and 18 candidates from that number making it to the final stage of the recently concluded selection exercise for the appointment of permanent secretaries leaves little to be imagined about the state of the quality of officers in the Civil Service.

 

“Therefore, if the service will not be paying lip service in entrenching meritocracy in the system, priority should be accorded to the quality of the candidates and not their quantity. The service must take deliberate steps to depart from the culture of merely filling vacancies to putting round pegs in round holes forthwith,

 

“We are aware that the Office of the Civil Service of the Federation under its current leadership, is driving a number of laudable reforms in a conscious attempt to salvage the poor image of the service as an inefficient institution of government”.