Group Urges Tinubu To Cancel Promotion Exams For Perm Secs Over Controversies

President Bola Tinubu has been urged to immediately ‘cancel and review’ the recently conducted promotion exams from Directorship cadre to Permanent Secretary over controversies and irregularities. A civil society organization, Centre for Public Accountability (CPA) raised the alarm in a press statement signed and issued by its Convener, Femi Lawson at the end of an […]

President Bola Tinubu has been urged to immediately ‘cancel and review’ the recently conducted promotion exams from Directorship cadre to Permanent Secretary over controversies and irregularities.

A civil society organization, Centre for Public Accountability (CPA) raised the alarm in a press statement signed and issued by its Convener, Femi Lawson at the end of an extended executive meeting Friday in Abuja.

The accountability watchdog says it is calling for total cancellation of the entire process after keenly following the recently concluded promotion exams from Directorship cadre to Permanent Secretary and having seen it was marred with controversies, interest and underhand dealings.

Adding that most of the qualified Directors had expressed lack of confidence, bias, non-transparency and no trust in the Examiner Committee which was set up by the Head of Service.

It will be recalled that, 85 Directors from 5 states of the federation under two zones, namely North Central and North East zone sat for promotion exams on the 6th of November, 2023, with results released on the 7th of November, 2023.

Part of the statement reads: “It will be recalled that, 85 Directors from 5 states of the federation and two geo-political zones, namely North Central and North East zones sat for promotion exams on the 6th of November, 2023, with results released on the 7th of November, 2023.

“It was reliably gathered that long before this exercise, there has been complaint about the composition of the Examine Committee. Most of the qualified Directors have expressed their lack of confidence, bias, non-transparency, no trust in the said Examiner Committee. .

“As a result of this long time controversy and lack of trust in the exercise, 4 of the qualified Directors refused to show up, nor write the said exam despite initially registering to write the exam. This is aside from the Directors that declined to register for the exams due to lack of confidence in the selection process that would end up producing Permanent Secretaries already predetermined.

“As just observed, out of the total number of 85 that eventually sat for the exam, only 20 were listed to have passed the so called exam with 50% above while the rest were said to have failed. The allocation of scores in the exam shows a cluster and is very curious.”