BY UZOMA ISIAKPU
Statutorily, the Abia State Civil Service Commission (CSC) is empowered to among other responsibilities superintend over the transparent and merit-based recruitment exercise to fill vacant posts in the Civil Service. In executing this function, the commission subjects prospective applicants to writing rigorous examination and thereafter, tasking oral interview. The implication is that enlistment into the State Civil Service is a herculean task. It is indeed an arduous process.
It is only when a candidate a candidate scaled through the prescribed tests that he/she is engaged into the Service. Even at that, the appointee is employed on probation subject to fulfilling certain conditions. All these procedures are adopted to determine the capability, level of preparedness and suitability of the employees for the job. In addition, the newly recruited undergo intensive orientation to acquaint them of work ethic and service rules.
Civil servants employed in old Imo State and those that enlisted into the State Service immediately after the creation of Abia State in 1991, passed through these labourous crusibles. But with the passage of time, it would seem that the rigid established method of recruitment into the Service by the CSC has seriously been eroded. The usual competitiveness based on merit has since taken a flight.
The reason for this is intervention by the Executive branch of government. Better referred as waiver, the executive fiat in the recruitment process has divested the Civil Service Commission of it’s statutory role of impartially scrutinizing applicants seeking employment into the State Civil Service. Backed by executive waiver, candidates are now automatically employed without undergoing the prescribed procedures.
The obvious consequence of this absurdity which has usurped the functions of the CSC, is that the core values of the Service have been compromised.
Work ethic is not observed. Respect for superior officers is lacking. Service rules are not obeyed. Indiscipline is the order of the day. Moral laxity has become the hallmark of the Service.
Worst still, public servants no longer read to keep abreast of Establishment Rules as well as upgrade their knowledge.
The prevailing degeneration in the State Civil Service accounted for the abysmal performance and mass failure of civil servants in the promotion exercise conducted in the fall of 2024. It is very shameful that only a paltry five percent of the candidates that sat for the promotion examination passed. A whooping 95 percent of the candidates flunked.
This is worrisome and disturbing. Upsetting because with the gradual retirement of aging civil servants, it is doubtful whether the present crop of public servants can effectively, efficiently and honestly prove their mettle in shepherding the ongoing reforms in the Civil Service by the administration of Governor Alex Chioma Otti.
There is therefore urgent need for revival in the State Civil Service for improved performance and dedicated service delivery to drive sustainable development as envisioned by the Governor. Gladly, Governor Alex Otti has kick-started the reanimation by compassionately giving a second chance to the unsuccessful candidates in the promotion examination. Allowing them to resit the examination will afford them the opportunity to fall back on relevant literatures to increase their learning.
The affected civil servants owe Governor Alex Otti a debt of gratitude for his empathy to them.
More importantly, for the ongoing reforms in the Civil Service to get a head start, it is imperative that the Civil Service Commission should be well equipped financially and otherwise, to extensively carry out one of its functions, training and capacity building for civil servants. On a regular basis, seminars and workshops should be held for public servants utilizing retired Permanent Secretaries and Directors as resource persons.
Such exercise will no doubt equip civil servants intellectually and practically to be alive to their responsibilities. In the same vein, the change mantra of Governor Alex Otti in the Civil Service will be given more fillip when the Bureau of Common Services and Service Monitoring in the Office of the State Head of Service (HOS) is fully mobilized to effectively execute it’s function of monitoring and enforcing discipline in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
To achieve the desired result, Governor Alex Otti should consider appointing a substantive Permanent Secretary in the Bureau of Common Services and Service Monitoring.
Furthermore, the Bureau of Common Services should ensure that SERVICOM Desk Offices, with Desk Officers, are operational and functional in all MDAs to closely monitor compliance to service rules and instantly sanction defaulting public servants.
The crusade for a New Abia particularly in the State Civil Service will only be attained with the attitudinal adjustment by civil servants in upgrading their knowledge and adhering to the ethos of best practices in the service.
To this end, there is need for the Abia State Orientation Agency (ABSOA) to step out from it’s comfort zone and stump the State Secretariats to engage and sensitize civil servants to embrace the right and best practices that are in compliant to the new order.
UZOMA ISIAKPU is a Media/PR Consultant.
