Obaseki: No more automatic promotion for civil servants in Edo

There will be no more automatic promotion for civil servants in Edo State, Governor Godwin Obaseki has announced.
The governor, who made the announcement on Tuesday in Benin when he received members of Edo Civil Service Commission, said that, henceforth, promotion would be based on performance.
He said that civil servants would write promotion examination to test their level of competence.
He said that his administration would act on the promotion results released by the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) which recently conducted examinations for some civil servants in the state.
He said that civil servants who did well in the examination would be rewarded while those who did not do well would be trained and given opportunities to improve.
The governor added that those who lagged behind would be asked to go “as the era of permanent job has gone:.
“We called ASCON to help us conduct promotion examination for officers on grade level 16 to 17.
“The examination was quiet revealing; based on it, we made some promotions and asked some others to leave the service and they will be informed.
“There is no more automatic promotion; you have to justify your promotion on annual basis,’’ he said.
Obaseki said that his administration had suspended civil servants who decided not to write the examination.
He said that they would not be re-absorbed into the system until they write the examination to enable the government access their competence.
He said: “the next set of civil servants to write the examinations are officers on grade levels 13, 14, 15.
“We truly want to have a professional civil service; once that is achieved, we will now focus on motivation, encouraging the workers to deliver effectively.’’
Earlier, the Chairman of the Commission, Mrs Ekiuwa Inneh, told the governor that as at Dec. 31, 2015, the total staff strength of the service was 2,575.
She said that there was gender distribution of 1,528 males and 1,047 females.
“Within the period, 617 officers were promoted, 17 were offered new appointments and 140 had their appointments confirmed, while 3 officers were absorbed into permanent establishment.
Inneh said the commission was faced with several challenges which included payment of special allowance recommended, funding, upgrading of the office equipment and furniture as well as provision of vehicles.