Reps move 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.

This followed a motion moved by Rep. Salman Idris, the Deputy Chairman, 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, he said, had resulted in loss of service delivery, decline in highly specialized 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 of this hallowed chamber if the policies and programmes of government must be achieved,” he said.

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 due was imperative and should not be overlooked.

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

He added that MDAs often made provision for such recurrent expenditure in the yearly appropriation.

He said that every promotion stagnation 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 in active service or by the retirement age of 60 year.

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