25th July, 2011
Extensive lobby by civil servants for deployment to juicy ministries and career progression have taken over the Lagos State Government Secretariat, Alausa.
Some officers who got wind that they were about to be redeployed to other ministries after they have stayed there for long, lobbyied to be retained in the same place.
According to observation, those who don’t have ‘godfathers’ to influence their posting are always at the receiving end in the civil service.
While some civil servants who have spent between two and three years in a particular ministry were being redeployed, some who have spent over 10 years in their juicy ministries still remained untouched.
According the civil service rule, a civil servant is expected to spend a minimum of two years and a maximum of four years in a ministry before being redeployed to another ministry, but in Alausa, some civil servants spend over 10 years in one ministry all because they have godfathers.
In a recent redeployment carried out by the state government, some officers who have spent dunky years in a particular ministry and were supposed to be redeployed were not moved. Reason was that they had the power to lobby.
The situation has become so bad that the Head of Service (HOS), Adesegun Ogunlewe, who is always under pressure from influential personalities to redeploy their candidates to juicy ministries, was forced to voice out his concern recently.
“It has been observed with dismay the increasing indiscipline on the part of some officers who lobby external parties and influential personalities on matters relating to deployment, discipline and career progression rather than exploring and exploiting established channels within the service.
“By their action, these set of people inhibit the smooth running of government activities and such act of misconduct is at variance with the provisions of the Civil Service Rules 04613,†lamented the HOS in a circular.