‘50% of Candidates Failed Exams for Permanent Secretary Position’

Olawale Ajimotokan

The Office of Head of Service of the Federation has released the result of written examination for vacant federal permanent secretary positions in the federal civil service.

The result released yesterday showed that 50 per cent of the candidates scored less than 50 per cent in the written test.

The written examination for eligible candidates on Grade Level 17 was conducted on February 21.

The exercise was to fill vacancies of retired Solicitor General of the Federation/Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice and Permanent Secretaries retiring in 2022, from Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Jigawa, Plateau, Sokoto and Taraba states. Substantive directors that would not retire from service earlier than December 31, 2023, participated in the exercise.

A circular issued yesterday by the Office of the Head of Service and signed by Mrs. Idowu O. Olusola on behalf of the Examination Committee, showed the outcome of the exercise.

In the circular- HCSF/PS/CMO/154/1/70 – dated February 22, 2022, indicated that the highest score in the exam was 74 per cent while the least score was 26 per cent.

The total number of candidates that sat for the examination was 74 while the total number of those that scored less than 50 per cent was 37.

The candidates’ identities were not indicated as only their examination numbers and scores were reflected on the circular.

According to the circular, only the candidates that scored above 50 per cent would be eligible for the ICT Proficiency test, which is the one before the final stage of the selection exercise today at the National Intelligence Agency, Abuja.

The selection process is made up written examination, ICT Proficiency Test in Microsoft Word; Excel and PowerPoint and the final stage, which is interactive session with a broad-based panel of experts and practitioners.