Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
A leading pro-democracy group in Kwara State, Kwara Must Change, has urged the leadership of the state House of Assembly to appoint a substantive Clerk of the state Assembly to avoid creating unnecessary gap.
The group said the development became imperative in view of the alleged controversy surrounding the contract engagement and re-engagement of the clerk of the state House of Assembly, Hajiya Jummai Kperogi.
The contract engagement and re-engagement of Kperogi after the completion of her 35 years in service by the state House of Assembly had continued to create tension in the state.
The development, however, led a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), to issue a 14-day ultimatum to the leadership of the Assembly to reverse the contract engagement and re-engagement of the Clerk, Kperogi, or face legal action.
The organisation described as unlawful the contract appointment of Kperogi and the continued extension of her tenure as the clerk to the Assembly for a period of one year following her retirement from office.
But in a statement issued by the Coordinator of Kwara Must Change, in Ilorin yesterday, Yusuf Olatunji, the group explained that contract appointment in the civil service can be effected to bridge existing gap.
It also said: “The provisions of contract appointment in the civil service rule is to be executed by the administrative head, not for the administrative head itself to be on contract for an extended period of time without any attempt to close the gap.
“Unfortunately, the engagement and re-engagement of Kperogi as contract clerk for the Assembly is not bridging any gap, instead, it creating more gaps.”
According to Yusuf, the identification of gaps to be filled by contract appointment is to be done by the administrative head of the service, but when appointment of administrative head itself is on contract, more gaps are created, not bridged.
He explained that: “While Kwara Must Change cannot claim to know details of the situation that warranted the engagement and re-engagement of a contract clerk for the Assembly, it is worthy to note that the law provides for secondment, which would have been the proper thing to do if indeed there are no qualified person within state Assembly Service Commission to take up the responsibility.
“Investigation by Kwara Must Change also revealed that this is the first time a clerk of the Assembly will be on contract basis for an extended period of time, and we do not believe this is a good precedent for our growing democracy.
“While it may be argued that contract appointment on its own is not a violation of any law, we believe the engagement of a contract clerk without any clear reason didn’t align with the general principle of the civil service rule.”
The group, therefore, joined the call on the Kwara State House of Assembly to close the existing gap by appointing a substantive clerk, which would help correct the misinterpreted situation and avoid creating a wrong precedent.
