Chairman of FCSC, Mrs. Joan Ayo
Adedayo Akinwale and Christabel Adah
Following the pronouncement by the Federal Government on the cancellation of the promotional examination in the public service, the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) has thrown its weight behind the move, saying the essence of the cancellation is to ensure effective service delivery.
Chairman of FCSC, Mrs. Joan Ayo, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, said: “This process currently entails observation of their practical performance at work, their punctuality and consistency at work and their commitment and competence on their assigned tasks.”
She added: “Though this constitutes the current of assessment, as encapsulated in Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER), its objectivity is fast losing credibility. Indeed, the APER is now considered to be obsolete and given increasing transparency of global best practices in human resource management, it is no longer tenable due to subjective nature.
“It was observed that the current system has failed to reflect the true standard of personnel and as a result consistently mitigated human management initiatives and the attainment of the expected goals and objectives.”
She further explained that, the APER method has led to governments, continued recording of decline in productivity and provision of services to Nigerians.
“I should perhaps mention at this juncture that though the promotion examination process as known will be discontinued, it is without prejudiced to the just concluded examination. This exercise as concluded is valid and binding,” she added.
The FSC boss also stressed that the pronouncement made by President Goodluck Jonathan on the introduction of the Performance Contracting Evaluation Method was a bold initiative, which would help propel the country forward and also salvage the slides in the public service, especially in service delivery.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), Mr. President in Council endorsed the proposal that this process of management and progression in the service should take precedence over and above the previous assessment practice of conducting examination for promotion of civil servants,” she said.
“FCSC has now agreed to renew the current practice of written examination with a view to working out standard modalities for assessing the performance of civil servants within the management system and this is in relation to the contractual obligation of the Minister and Ministries to Mr. President,” she revealed.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Abdulkadir Abduljadir Musa, emphasised that public servants from GL 08-14 would be assessed by the Ministry’s Senior Management Committee under the supervision of a representative of the commission while, GL 15 and above would be under the supervision of the commission.
“This year we have introduced interview because officers that will be Permanent Secretary should have personality and be sound for good service delivery,” Musa said.