THE INSIDER: Eight-year tenure limit for directors introduced to check age cheats in MDAs

The eight-year tenure policy for directors of federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) was introduced to weed out age cheats in the civil service, TheCable can report.

In July, Folashade Yemi-Esan, head of service of the federation, announced that the government had commenced the implementation of the revised public service rules (PSR).

Speaking at a lecture held at the state house, Abuja, to mark the 2023 civil service week, Yemi-Esan said the implementation of the revised PSR took effect from July 27.

The head of service also issued a circular addressed to permanent secretaries, the accountant-general of the federation, the auditor-general for the federation, and heads of the extra-ministerial department, informing them of the revised PSR.

“Following the approval of the revised public service rules (PSR) by the federal executive council (FEC) on the 27th of September 2021 and its subsequent unveiling during the public service lecture in commemoration of the 2023 civil service week, the PSR has become operational with effective from 27th July, 2023,” the circular reads.

According to section 020009 of the revised PSR, the tenure limit for permanent secretaries is four years and another renewable term based only on satisfactory performance.

The rules also provide that a director (GL 17) or its equivalent as may be prescribed by other MDAs shall compulsorily retire upon the attainment of eight years in that position.

The federal ministry of finance is one of the MDAs that has commenced the implementation of the policy.

In the circular dated July 27, Mariya Rufa’i, director of administration at the ministry, directed that all affected “are advised to commence the process of documentation with the admin department for compulsory retirement by virtue of the section under reference”.

TheCable understands that about 5,000 directors across MDAs who have spent eight years in their current positions will be affected by the policy.

‘POLICY MEANT TO WEED OUT AGE CHEATS’ 

A director in one of the agencies told TheCable that the reform was introduced by the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua when Stephen Oronsaye was the head of service of the federation.

The director said the reform proposed eight years as the maximum period that a director or permanent secretary can stay in the service.

He said the inability of deputy directors to progress to the next stage of their career necessitated the introduction of the policy during the tenure of the late president.

“The policy is not a new one. It was first introduced by Stephen Oronsaye when he was the head of the service of the federation in 2008 or thereabout, but for whatever reason, it was suspended sometime in 2015 or 2016 when (Muhammadu) Buhari became the president,” he said. 

“The sit-tight syndrome of many directors stalled the career progression of many deputy directors and it has caused disaffection across the MDAs.

“If you do the analysis, most of the directors who have spent eight years and still in the service have doctored their age. 

“If you graduate at the right age and join the civil service at level 8 at age 25, you are supposed to spend three years on each level and by the time you get to level 14, you must have spent 15 years and if you add it to your age, there is no way you can spend more than eight years as a director provided that he didn’t fail his promotion examination and there is a vacancy.”

The director said the government intends to weed out those who have overstayed in the system, and those who have reduced their ages, as well as ensure that those who are qualified are promoted to directorate level.

“Some permanent secretaries and directors should not have been in the service by now if they had not doctored their age. They ought not to spend more than eight years,” he said.

“But some of them became perm sec at the age of 40 and are still around. On no account should a perm sec spend more than eight years.”

Speaking on why the policy is just being re-introduced, he said the review of the public service rules started under the immediate past administration.

“The head of the service got approval for the review under the last administration. And you know many people were not happy and the pressure was much to have the system changed. So they had to issue that circular for the implementation,” he said.

Olawale Edun, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on monetary policy, was recently reported to have announced the commencement of the implementation of the revised PSR at the civil service week lecture.