Group calls for cancellation of promotion exams in civil service

The Centre for Public Accountability has urged the federal government to review the just concluded promotion examinations from directorship cadre to permanent secretary in the country.

The Centre in a statement signed by its Director of Public Governance Monitoring, Nuhu Adams, alleged that the process was marred with controversies.

Adams alleged that the exercise was characterised by corruption, nepotism and bribery, thereby causing lack of confidence in the head of service and the examination committee that conducted the exam.

The group stated that there had been complaints about the composition of the committee, noting that many of them were close allies of the head of service under which authority the exam was conducted.

The statement reads: “After thorough evaluation of the just concluded promotion examination from directorship cadre to permanent secretary, it was discovered that the exercise was marred with controversies.

“It will be recalled that 85 Directors from five states of the federation and two geo-political zones, namely North Central and North East zones sat for the promotion exams on November 6, 2023, with results released on November 7.

“It was reliably gathered that long before the exercise, there were complaints about the composition of the examination committee, as most of them were close allies of the head of service under whose authority this exam was conducted with a hidden agenda to influence the outcome.

“Most of the qualified directors have expressed their lack of confidence, bias, non-transparency, no trust in the said Committee because it was opined that, the head of service has interest in who would be made to pass the said exam, but despite this the exam was still conducted under serious controversies.

“As a result of this four of the qualified directors refused to show up to participate in the examination despite registering. This is beside the directors that declined to register for the exams due to lack of confidence in the selection process that would end up producing Permanent Secretaries already predetermined by the Head of Service.”