The Federal Government has promoted 1,780 senior civil servants from different ministries and government agencies to the directorate cadre.

The PUNCH reported that they were promoted based on the result of the government’s last promotion and evaluation exercise.

Although a government communication announcing the promotion was dated August 5, 2019, the affected government officials had their elevation backdated to January 1, 2018, about one year and seven months ago.

The communication obtained by The Punch correspondent on Tuesday was signed by the chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Dr Tukur Ingawa, and had FC.6243/GOV/2018/VOL.II/341 as its reference number.

Ingawa indicated that the affected government officials were either promoted from Salary Grade Level 14 to 15, SGL 15 to 16 or SGL 16 to 17.

In the federal civil service, all the promoted persons now belong to the directorate cadre.

Those on SGL 15 are assistant directors; those on SGL 16 are deputy directors while those on SGL 17 are directors.

He also indicated that the officials are those who passed the 2018 promotion examination.

“Sequel to the conduct of the 2018 directorate level promotion/evaluation exercise, the Federal Civil Service Commission has approved the promotion of the following officers in the federal civil service from Salary Grade Levels 14 to 15, 15 to 16 and 16 to 17 respectively, with effect from January 1, 2018,” Ingawa wrote.

The attached names of the newly promoted government officials ran into 104 pages.

A breakdown of the beneficiaries showed that the officials cut across 16 ministries; Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; Bureau of Public Procurement, Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation; Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

Further analysis of the list showed that the Ministry of Education had the highest number of beneficiaries with 395 officials promoted.

Of the 395 officials, those promoted to SGL 15 were 230; those promoted to SGL 16 were 125 while those elevated to SGL 17 were 40.

The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has the second highest number of beneficiaries with 327 officials.

Of the 327 officials, 116 were promoted to SGL 15; 135 promoted to SGL 135 while 76 were promoted to SGL 76.

The Ministry of Defence had the third highest number of promoted officials with 243 officers.

Of the 243 officials, 187 were elevated to SGL 15; 49 were promoted to SGL 16 while seven were promoted to SGL 17.

Other offices and the number of promoted officials were Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (7); Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (8); Ministry of Trade and Investment (26); Ministry of Information and Culture (30); Ministry of Health (80); Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (6); Ministry of Justice (61); and Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (148).

Others included Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (81); Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (19); Ministry of Water Resources (11); Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (4); BPE (52) and Ministry of Environment (6).

Others were Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (69); Auditor-General of the Federation (60); Ministry of Foreign Affairs (55) and Ministry of Interior (Police Education) (92).

A civil servant told our correspondent on the condition of anonymity that with the backdating of the promotion, the beneficiaries were also qualified for another promotion in less than three years.