Nineteen Directors have failed the Permanent Secretary written examinations conducted in Abuja on Monday.
They were among the 38 eligible candidates who sat for the three-stage selection process to fill the vacancies for the retiring permanent secretaries from Abia, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Rivers States.
The Head of Information and Public Relations, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Eno Olotu, said in a statement on Tuesday that the 19 candidates still in the race will on Wednesday proceed to the second stage of the exercise, which will test their competence in the use of “Information Communication and Technology (ICT)” in conducting government business.
The Office of the Head of Service of the Federation usually follows an established tradition of carrying out a rigorous three-stage exercise that ensures that only the very best among the directors on Grade Level 17 are appointed permanent secretaries and equipped with appropriate and relevant skills to improve and sustain effective delivery of services.
The statement further noted that the successful candidates would then proceed to the final stage, where they would be grilled by a carefully constituted panel of top bureaucrats and representatives of the organised private sector, on Friday, November 15.
Olotu extended the goodwill of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Esther Didi Walson-Jack, to all the 38 candidates and appreciated the continued support of the Nigerian public in entrenching “meritocracy” in career progression in the Civil Service.
