Reps to investigate promotion stagnation in civil service

The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate promotion stagnation in the Federal Civil Service from 2013 to 2023.

The resolution was a sequel to a motion moved by Rep. Salman Idris, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Agric Colleges and Institutions in Abuja.

He said that promotion remained the progression of civil servants as well as a motivational incentive for productivity.

Idris decried the incessant stagnation in promotions across Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.

This, according to him, had resulted in a loss of service delivery, a decline in highly specialised skills, low levels of productivity and performance, employee unrest, corruption and dampened morale.

“The menace of promotion stagnation in the civil service calls for urgent attention and intervention from this hallowed chamber, if the policies and programmes of government must be achieved.”

He said that the civil service remained the engine room of government, adding that it required a holistic reform that could promote global best practices.

He added that the issues of promotions and recommendations as and when they were due were imperative and should not be overlooked.

Idis said some civil servants who eventually get promoted and undergo mandatory examination as required by civil service rules were promoted notionally but not financially.

He added that every NDAs ministry often makes provision for such recurrent expenditures in the yearly appropriation.

Idris said that every stagnation in promotion would have an effect on the career of the officer.

He added that every civil servant was expected to rise to the pinnacle of their career within 35 years of active service or by the retirement age of 60.

The House ruled that the committee on public sector and institutional reforms should investigate promotion stagnation in the Federal Civil Service from 2013–2023.

The house stated that this is with a view to having a robust civil service at this critical stage of the nation’s development and report back to the House within 4 weeks.