Nigeria Content Online

The re-sit of the competency test for
directorate level officers in the Civil Service will still hold as
scheduled despite opposition from civil servants, the Head of Civil
Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, has said.

Mr Oronsaye rejected calls, by the
Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, for the cancellation
of the tests on Tuesday when he met with leaders of the association in
his office in Abuja. He argued that the demand by the association was
based on wrong information. “The test will hold as scheduled,” he told
the visiting officers. Members of the Association, led by the National
President, Olakunle Olaitan, had released a four-point communiqué
calling for the cancellation of the re-sit of the competency test. In
the communiqué, they also demanded that the test should not be a
prerequisite for promotion of deserving officers in the service. The
Head of Service, however, said that the Post-Training Competency Test
is not a promotion examination but that it could be used for screening
candidates for promotion, which he said is the responsibility of his
office.

Mr. Oronsaye added that he was saddened
by the consistent complaints on the competency of officers in the civil
service which has affected service delivery and resulted in low
productivity.

Pride to the nation

He called on civil servants to join in
the efforts being made to build a service that will be a pride to the
nation. Mr Oronsaye explained that the Specialized Mandatory Training
Programme, which preceded the former test, was planned through several
events which included a stakeholders’ forum and another for the review
of modules. However, he attributed the congestion experienced towards
the end to the endemic error in staff data in the civil service.

At the end of the deliberations, both parties mutually agreed that
only officers who have good reasons to retake the training before
sitting for the re-sit would be granted such request. Mr Oronsaye also
approved that all officers taking the re-sit test next week could take
a week leave from official duties to prepare. Others issues raised in
the communiqué include demands for a better structured training
programme, harmonized promotion exercise based on collaboration between
the Office of the Head of the Civil Service and the Federal Civil
Service Commission. They also requested that officers who passed
promotion examinations but were not promoted due to lack of vacancies
should be considered for promotion whenever vacancies are available.