METRO Administrative bottlenecks: FCTA Permanent Sec seeks review of Order 1, 2004

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Mr. Olusade Adesola, has advocated for the immediate review of Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory Dissolution Order No.1, 2004 otherwise known as “Order 1, 2004″, in order to effectively address burning issues in the administration of the Territory.

Recall that FCTA was birthed by the proclamation of the Federal Capital Territory (Establishment of Functionaries and Departments) on the 31st December, 2004.

However, Adesola noted that even as desirable and expedient as Order 1 2004 is, it did not cater for the career of the civil servants element, who should be the largest beneficiaries of it.

He spoke yesterday, at a suprise gettogether 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.

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.

He said: “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”.

Futhermore, the Permanent Secretary opined 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.