• 17 Dec 2020

The Department of Discipline and Appeals of the Commission is charged with the responsibilities of handling disciplinary and appeal cases Service wide. In the discharge of its responsibilities, the powers to discipline and hear appeals cases of officers from G.L. 01-06 had been delegated to the Ministries and the Inter-Ministerial Departments (MDAs) through the Junior Staff Committees. It is however expected that a copy of their decision be forwarded to the Commission for information and noting. Cases involving officers on Salary Grade LevelS 07-13 is handled by the Senior Staff Committee which consists of all Directors in the MDAs with a Hon. Commissioner as an Observer under the Chairmanship of the Permanent Secretary or Chief Executive Officer. The recommendations of this Committee are then forwarded to the Commission for consideration and appropriate decision.

Hearing and Determination of Appeals
All aggrieved officers have the right of appeal to the Federal Civil Service Commission or even Mr. President. However, the guidelines provide that before such appeals are forwarded to the Commission, those arising from the decisions of the Junior Staff Committee must first be submitted to the Senior Staff Committee of the MDAs for determination. In other words, appeal cases for both Junior and Senior Officers must be forwarded through the Permanent Secretary or the Chief Executive of the Extra-Ministerial Department to the Commission. It is expected that the briefs and minutes of meetings of the relevant Committees must be forwarded to the Commission within four (4) weeks.

Cases Handled by the Commission from June, 2010 to November, 2011
Within the period stated above, the Commission considered six hundred and fourteen (614) Discipline and Appeal cases. The Commission in its deliberation on recommendations brought to it from the Senior Staff Committee of various MDAs amongst others exonerated 21 officers, dismissed 62, retired 5, terminated 7, demoted 4, suspended 1, rejected 1 and 4 were classified time-barred. The total number of cases considered under the 2nd Phase of the Public Service Reforms Rightsizing Exercise within the period was 401 out of these 358 officers were reinstated while a total of 43 officers were severed from the Service also 7 cases were returned to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism because the Commission does not entertain cases from Parastatals.

* Under the 2nd Phase of the Public Service Reforms Rightsizing Exercise, the Commission considered the recommendation of the BPSR and individual appeals and thereby approving the Reinstatement of 358 No and the Severance of 43 Nos on 24th May, 2011. * Commission also returned 7 cases back to Ministry of Culture and Tourism as Commission does not handle cases from Parastatals.

Challenges
The major challenge is the delay in concluding Discipline and Appeal cases. The Commission is seriously looking into this and will very soon put in place further guidelines and programmes that would ensure that cases are concluded within a very reasonable time limit. To ensure success in this direction, the Directors of Human Resources and the Schedule Officers responsible for discipline and appeal cases in all MDAs and other stakeholders will be engaged to guarantee acceptability and compliance.