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FCTA To Partner Head of Service To improve Civil Servants Welfare

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Joel Ajayi

The Minister, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has pledged to partner with the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to improve the welfare of civil servants in the FCT.

Malam Bello made the pledge when he received Dr. Folasade Yemi Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation on a courtesy visit to the FCT Administration.

The Minister who stressed the need for the provision of affordable houses for civil servants said more partnership is needed among government agencies to provide high rise buildings in the face of inadequate land to carter for the teeming number of civil servants in the FCT in need of personal accommodation.

He said “What we have also observed is that the concept of building that hitherto was done here in Abuja maybe 20 or 25 years ago, even for the affordable housing, is no longer sustainable in the sense that land is simply not available in the areas that are accessible by all the means of transportation and more importantly, where there is infrastructure.

He continued: “what I’m saying is that in applying the concept of affordable housing, we should now start thinking of high rise buildings. I recall in Lagos that civil servants had high rise buildings in Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Surulere. This is the concept we now have to start looking at because massive lands are simply no longer available and you will be surprised with what you can do with half a hectare”.

Malam Bello also said that with strong collaboration, a robust high capacity bus system could be worked out to meet the transportation needs of civil servants. This, he said, will greatly ease the hardship faced by civil servants in transporting themselves to and from work.

Earlier, the head of the civil service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi Esan had solicited the assistance of the FCTA to improve the welfare of civil servants across the country, especially in the areas of affordable housing and transportation.

She said that it was worrisome that many civil servants cannot afford to own their own homes and hence the Federal Government introduced the FISH (Federal Integrated Staff Housing) scheme which was designed to enable civil servants to own houses at affordable rates.

She disclosed that over 50,000 civil servants had signed up for the scheme and requested that the FCT Administration expedite action on the provision of land for the programme.

Accompanying the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation was the Permanent Secretary Service Welfare Officer in the Office of the Head of Civil Service, Dr. Evelyn Ngige and other senior members of staff.

 

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Upcoming 2024 Promotion examination exercise will be on Computer Based Test (CBT) -Prof. Olaopa

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—-says wage and compensation dimension of meritocracy must be addressed in civil service

Joel Ajayi

In his effort to scale-up the ongoing reform in the Commission and the necessity to achieve his objectives in the Federal Civil Service; the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa has said that the Commission’s 2024 Promotion examination exercise will be on Computer Based Test (CBT) in line with the modernization and digitization program in the Federal Civil Service. He also said that restoring competency based HR practice and merit system in civil service will be meaningless if the intended reforms fail to address the wage and compensation dimension of meritocracy.

Olaopa who stated this on Thursday at the maiden Federal Civil Service Commission’s Monthly-Seminar Series for officers on grade levels 14 and above; opined that his numerous engagements with the Chairman, National Income, Salary and Wages Commission whose insights were re-assuring and solution context was important in the Commission’s reform agenda.

The event which gave the Hon. Commissioners and Management Staff opportunities to express their view witnessed Commission’s Director of Promotion; Mr. Sani B. Torankawa presented a Seminar-paper tagged: “Institutional framework and procedures for the conduct of Directorate level Promotion Examination: Guaranteeing Integrity, Credibility Transparency and Accountability”.

Chairman in his opening speech disclosed that the objective of the maiden-monthly-seminar series was designed to institute a seminar-space and learning-lab for federal officers. He added that the seminar was one of avenues the Commission deepens the sharing and learning of key reform issues and benchmarking in Nigeria.

He said the Commission will transit through the upcoming 2024 Promotion examination exercise from analogue to Computer Based Test (CBT) in tandem with the modernization and digitization of Federal Civil Service core operations.

Reeling out how the digitization is going to be implemented, Olaopa said the Commission will roll out an online-recruitment portal that will be accessible to all Nigerians and which will allow eligible candidates to pre-fill recruitment form and update them from time to time in preparation for the placement of adverts for recruitment into the public service and to the Federal service and in preparation for assessment and interview.

The Chairman revealed that henceforth eligible candidate will undergo computer based test and oral interview with result collated and released real-time.

He further revealed that the Commission was going into out-sourcing contract with National Open University and by extension with Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) both as technical partners with a view to take advantage of their infrastructure, networks and experience for online-accreditations, computer based test and examination as well as promotion-interview for officers in the Federal Service starting with Directorate level officers.

Talking about the maiden seminar, he disclosed that the event was convened to critically examine some of the first level issues and risks associated with the planned transition from analogue to online-computer based assessment processes as they touch on promotion exercise for Federal civil servants.

“We are not just looking at digitizing our online processes, computer based processes; we are also going to listen to some of the stakeholders who have been in this service, who have observed the way promotion are conducted”.

According to him, a lot of technical conversation will follow going-forward where some experts including Ministers that are doing well in computerization of their services will be invited to critique what the Commission is doing as part of due diligence to make sure that the Commission is doing the right thing.

He asserts that social-media orientation will be carried out where sets of media-clip will be made available to all civil servant to enable them to know the process for computer based assessment. He added that civil servants will also be taking through some orientation sessions conducted by the Head of Service in form of mock-test to prepare officers for 2024 promotion examination scheduled to hold in the 3rd quarter of this year.

Citing COVID19 pandemic as a case in point, he pointed out that ICT were used to work remotely from office seamlessly; saying that Commission will not be distracted by voices that believes that the initiative will not work. He stressed that the Commission will continue to perfect the process as the program is being deployed. He said, “We are going to do it whether we score 50 per cent or whatever”.

He informed that apart from digitization and computerization program being contemplated by the organization, there were other phases to be unveiled in due course which will be geared towards Commission’s reform plans once the endorsement of the President Ahmed Bola Tinubu is secured.

He emphasized that the Commission’s staff capacity and institutional structure need to be upgraded to sustain the momentum that various reform will create. He noted that as all efforts are channel to strengthen the professionalism of the Federal bureaucracy, the establishment of professionalized and modernized Federal Civil Service in line with the Renew-Hope Agenda of the government cannot be overemphasized.

The high point of the event was panelists/speakers presentations delivered by Mr. Ataboh Ademu-Director (Learning & Development)-OHCSF represented by an Asst. Director-Dr. Mohammed Bashir; Prof. Olugbenga D. Ojo-Director (Examination & Assessment-NOUN); Dr. Ahmed Dunoma Umar-Permanent Secretary-Fed. Min. of Youth Development; Mr. Olu O. Ilesanmi-Rtd Fmr. Permanent Secretary, Fed. Ministry and Mr. Mato Yusuf Abdullahi Director (ICT)-FCSC. This was followed by Q & A session.

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