By Sarah NEGEDU
Permanent Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Mr. Olusade Adesola, has called for the review of Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory Dissolution Order No.1, 2004, in order to effectively address burning issues in the administration of the Territory.
Adesola stated this spoke at a suprise get-together in honour of Senior Special Assistant, Media and Strategic Communication to the FCT Minister, Abubakar Sani, Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the FCT Minister, Attah Ikharo, and Special Adviser, Media to the FCT Minister of State, Austine Elemue.
Recall that the FCTA was established by the proclamation of the Federal Capital Territory (Establishment of Functionaries and Departments) on the 31st December, 2004.
The Permanent Secretary noted that even as desirable and expedient the policy, otherwise known as “Order 1, 2004″ was, it did not cater for the career of the civil servants who should be the largest beneficiaries of it.
According to him, the Order 1, 2004 made the secretary of the FCTA Secretariat a legal adviser between level 10 and 12, and this means that the Directors in the offices will now be reporting to the mandate secretary who is the chief accounting officer, which is a disservice to them.
In his words, “The order 1, 2004, that withdrew us from the mainstream service and benched us in this system did not do anything to look at what will be the future career of civil servants in the FCT.
“What this speaks to is that the conversion on Order 1 2004 is just begining. We need to sit down and to review this order particularly as it concerns the civil servants”.
Adesola further added that the establishment of the FCT Civil Service Commission has not cured the gap, because a commission has its own function as inscribed in the constitution. The function of the commission is appointment, promotion and discipline.
He added that the Civil Service Commission has not cured the gap, because a commission has its own function as inscribed in the constitution, while noting that any attempt to stretch the function of the commission beyond these three is contrary to the provision of constitution, which will amount to nullity.
On the way forward, he said, “There are a lot of way forward, a lot of proposals and initiatives are in the offing, and I believe when the new administration comes, this will be a very major issue that will have to be reviewed, in order to address issues affecting the career of the civil servants.
“I believe going forward that the media will join hands with us from the position of information rather than position of misinformation, this is because media had been used to propagate the demand for civil service commission for FCT, without which, there will be no peace in the FCT.
“Today, can civil service commission declare vacancy? Can Civil service commission do promotion without vacancy been declared? Who will declare the vacancy? It is still the office of the Permanent Secretary through the Director of Human Resources. Civil Service Commission cannot recruit unless you give it the vacancy to recruit into, otherwise the civil service commission will come in as a lame dog, as it would have only added additional layer of administrative bottlenecks in the career.
“I believe the incoming administration, which I will have the opportunity to brief alongside with you, will be able to look passionately into the career of the civil servants and address the bottlenecks that we currently have”, he stressed.