25th July, 2017
The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) has urged the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that the recruitment and promotion of civil servants examination was based on ethics, transparency and integrity.
Prof. Aminu Sheidu, the Chairman, Promotion Committee of the Commission said this at a four-day National Conference organised by Exam Ethics Marshals International (EEMI) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Speaking on the topic “Mainstreaming Ethics, Transparency and Best Practices in the Administration of Public Service Recruitment and Promotion Examinations’’, Sheidu said maintaining an efficient standard would promote competence among public servants.
“The concept of ethics, transparency and integrity in an examination context do have the same overall objective of quality, credibility and acceptability of an examination and its outcome.
“In maintaining ethical standards, all stakeholders, candidates, examiners, security operatives and the commission for example, are expected to be honest.
“All forms of cheating, assisting others to commit an act of dishonesty, altering or interfering with evaluation instruments and documents, leaking examination questions, impersonating to write examination for others, etc, are all considered unethical.’’
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According to him, many examination bodies and institutions often have published and publicised code of ethics to guide all stakeholders.
Sheidu said that transparency in an examination related to openness of processes and procedures was not enough for an examination to be honest, it must be shown to be honest.
“The implication of transparency in an examination is that the examination should be scrupulous enough to bear stakeholders’ scrutiny.
“It should be free from pretense or deceit and should be characterised by visibility or accessibility of information concerning the examination procedures, results and other outcomes to concerned stakeholders.’’
The Chairman of EEMI, Mr Ike Onyechere said that the conference was organised to address series of petitions and protests trailing public service examinations, recruitment, confirmation and promotions.
Onyechere, however, observed that some of the petitions ended up in courts of public opinion and courts of law.
He said that based on the foregoing, stakeholders had underscored the need to ensure adherence to best practices in conducting civil service examinations.
According to him, this development impacts negatively on ‘esprit de corps’, team work and service delivery in MDAs.