FIRS Staff decries irregularities in Promotion exercise

From Mika’il Tsoho

A staff from Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), decried irregularities in staff promotional exercise by the management.

The complain was written in an open letter to honourable minister of finance Hajiya Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed urging her to intervene and call the management into order.

The controversy surrounds the promotion exercise of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), as staff accuse the management of allege violating human resources policies and processes, skewing vacancies, and causing career stagnation and demoralization.

The confused 2022/2023 promotion exercise, which was not conducted as scheduled, combined two years of eligibility into one period, and left many qualified candidates with limited vacancies to compete for.

According to a concerned FIRS staff member, who wrote an open letter to the Honourable Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, “The staff were left in despair, hoping that considering the number of qualified staff, the management may deem it fit to create more vacancies at least to accommodate all that got the required pass mark in the examination.

The statement added, “that the examination was conducted, and considering the professional and hardworking nature of the staff, a large number of staff performed beyond expectation with a very high pass rate.”

However, the management canceled the result of the examination a week after citing irregularities, while promoting only those in the Directorate cadre, and ordered a second round of examination within five days.

The concerned staff member also reported that the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Mamman Nami, flew to the United Kingdom with the Board members to take a decision on the second promotion examination, but instead of following the human resources policy and process that requires an online test with immediate results, he directed a written test on core tax function to be marked later by a certain committee.

This action contravenes the HRPP and may compromise the credibility and transparency of the promotion exercise.

The concerned staff member further alleged that some staff members who are close to the Executive Chairman may not scale through the promotion due to the limited vacancies declared, and the Chairman may use the subjective written test to promote his preferred candidates.

The staff also lamented that the management recruits managers and senior managers position despite the availability of qualified staff to fill those positions which contravenes the Human Resources Policy and Processes (HRPP).