Kwara Must Change Wants Kperogi’s Contract Appointment Revisited

A leading Pro Democracy group, Kwara Must Change has waded into the controversy surrounding the contract engagement and re-engagement of the clerk of the Kwara State House of Assembly Hajiya Jummai Kperogi and the group has urged the leadership of the House to appoint a substantive clerk to avoid creating unnecessary gap.

Kwara Must Change also said that, the provisions of contract appointment in the civil service rule is to be executed by the administrative head, not for the administrative head itself to be on contract for an extended period of time without any attempt to close the gap.

In a statement by the Coordinator of Kwara Must Change, Comrade Yusuf Olatunji, the group explained that, contract appointment in the civil service can be effected to bridge existing gap.

“Unfortunately, the engagement and re-engagement of Hajiya Jummai Kperogi as contract clerk for the house is not bridging any gap, but instead, it creating more gaps”, Yusuf said.

According to Yusuf, the identification of gaps to be filled by contract appointment is to be done by the administrative head of the service, but when appointment of administrative head itself is on contract, more gaps are created, not bridged.

He explained that, while Kwara Must Change cannot claim to know details of the situation that warranted the engagement and re-engagement of a contract clerk for the House of Assembly, it is worthy to note that, the law provides for secondment, which would have been the proper thing to do, if indeed there are no qualified personnel within state assembly service commission to take up the responsibility.

Investigation by Kwara Must Change also revealed that, this is the first time, when clerk of the house will be on contract basis, for extended period of time and we do not believe this is a good precedent for our growing democracy.

“While it maybe argued that contract appointment on its own is not a violation of any law, we believe the engagement of a contract clerk without any clear reason didn’t align with the general principle of the civil service rule. The group said.

Kwara Must Change is therefore joining the call on the Kwara State House of Assembly to close the existing gap by appointing a substantive clerk, which would help correct the misinterpreted situation and avoid creating a wrong precedent.