Abuja – The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday endorsed the cancellation of promotion examinations as basis for career progression in the civil service.

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, disclosed this after this week’s Council meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Maku said that from 2013, career progression in the civil service would be based on performance measurement and the results of work done as measured to the satisfaction of members of the public.

He said the Council’s decision was based on a report submitted to it by the Federal Civil Service Commission.

The minister said the report was the outcome of the annual conference of federal and state service commissions held in June to discuss the development and the public service.

“One key issue that was reported to the Council today was that the Federal Civil Service Commission, in partnership with States Civil Service Commissions have formally adopted a proposal to use the performance contract system which has just been introduced by the Federal Government as the basis for career promotions in the Federal Civil Service.

“This indeed was reported to us and the Commission is proposing that from 2013 five MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) – namely those in the Ministries of Education, Agriculture, Health, Finance and Works will be adopted as pilot MDAs to introduce the new system of promotion based on performance measurement.

“Previously, promotions in the service have always been through the regular civil service examinations that are written by civil servants.

“In view of the new introduction of the performance contract systems which we have just introduced into all MDAs, the Federal Civil Service Commission is now considering the possibility of using performance measure which is the essence of this contract system as a basis for promotions.’’

Maku said that the beauty of the new system was that the promotion of career officers would be based on the result of the work they did.

“We think it is a step in the right direction and we want to see how the federal and state civil service commissions will implement this.

“In our opinion it is a revolutionary step which will change the way the public service will look at itself now and also it will improve standard, accountability, result delivery, particularly in terms of service delivery,’’ he said.

The minister said the Council also approved the introduction of modern e-management system and automation of government offices to improve efficiency.

He said from 2013, all MDAs would be networked to access and share relevant information.

“Between now and end of the year, the system will be put in place and from early next year it is expected that it will be fully automated.

“The advantages of the new system are quite enormous, but particularly it reduces time, paper work, cost, it fast tracks decisions and also in terms of recovery of document, it is better than the manual archives  that takes so long to access

“So we believe this is a step in the right direction and is being coordinated by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the service provider in this instance is the Galaxy Backbone.’’

Maku said he also presented the report of the good governance tour of the FCT and Kwara State to the Council.

He said that the tour would continue on Thursday with a visit to federal and state government projects in Niger State. (NAN)