The Federal Road Safety Corps has clarified a report alleging promotion racketeering in the organisation.
The Corps Public Education Officer, Mr Bisi Kazeem, made the clarification in a statement he issued on Saturday in Abuja.
“Having gone through the content of the publication, it has become necessary to clarify the disinformation and falsehood in the story, which regrettably mischaracterised the FRSC,“ the statement said.
Kazeem said that FRSC was guided by the principle that the purpose of promotion was for the advancement or uplifting of deserving officers who have met the necessary statutory requirements.
According to him, this is defined by a combination of extant regulatory documents such as the Public Service Rules, FRSC Conditions of Service, FRSC Scheme of Service and the FRSC Promotion Policy as approved by the Commission.
“The criteria for promotion to the next rank in FRSC is that the candidate must have satisfied the requirement of three or four years waiting period as applicable on rank.
“This provision excludes officers transiting from Assistant Corps Marshal to Deputy Corps Marshal (ACM to DCM) which is based on availability of vacancies in any of the six geo-political zones of the federation.
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“It is noteworthy to realise that the corps has six DCMs only, each representing the six geo-political zones. This means that apart from ACM to DCM, others must observe a statutory waiting period.
“The officer can only be qualified for promotion after the required period is met and the officer must be free of any disciplinary case(s), ” he said.
Kazeem said that contrary to the author’s claim all promotions in the corps were based on merit, observance of Federal Character Principle and availability of vacancies as approved by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation on a yearly basis.
“Stating the above criteria has become utterly important to register the transparent and objective nature of FRSC promotion exercise to the minds of the public, the statement said.
The spokesman explained that the five states, Rivers, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Yobe, and Sokoto that were alleged to have been sidelined did not have a single personnel that was eligible to participate in the promotion exercise as at the time the promotion list was compiled.
“This is so because none of the senior officers from those states has completed the mandatory and statutory waiting period.
Having said that, it is important to also state, for the sake of clarity, that the states that were alleged to have been favoured which included Imo, Edo, Enugu, Oyo and Ebonyi all have candidates.
And they all met the necessary requirements for the promotion before they were considered for the promotion exercise,“ he said.
Kazeem said that as a media friendly organisation, the corps wishes to applaud the watchdog role of the press which had over the years entrenched transparency and accountability in Public Service.
Kazeem urged journalists to always balance their reportage by seeking appropriate clarifications.
(NAN)