The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has taken steps to fill the vacant positions available, following the exit of the nationals of the AES countries – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, from the regional bloc.
ECOWAS Commission, which is saddled with this responsibility has made a request to the ECOWAS Council Ministers on Recruitment for ECOWAS Institutions to provide it with guidelines on equitable distribution of the vacant positions among all the Member-States, without sacrificing competence.
In his remarks at the Extra Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers on Recruitment meeting on Thursday in Abuja, President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, said it has become incumbent as the current staff regulations did not provide any guidance on how to allocate vacant positions to specific member-states for the purpose of achieving equity.
He said: “This extraordinary Council is borne out of necessity. In the last three years, we have struggled to fill vacancies in our institutions using a staff regulation that constrains management’s ability to administratively expedite the process.
“The challenge currently, is with the processing of these applications and the scheduling of interviews. These have been slower than the rate of staff attrition, due to aging workforce with an average annual loss of staff to retirement estimated at 13 personnel.
“The volume of applications is beyond the capacity of the recruitment firms in place, due to the largely manual method used in processing the applications.”
The sudden departure of large number of the ECOWAS workforce who are nationals of the countries that exited from the community triggered the challenge of replacing them.
Touray said the commission would also present a memorandum with proposals on how to achieve this equitable distribution of the positions and fast track the recruitment process, even as he assured of the Commission’s fairness and even distribution of positions among member states.
The Minister of Foreign, Republic of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba, in his statement, said that fairness and inclusivity should be paramount in the distribution of the positions.
Kabba also conveyed the message of the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS and Sierra Leonean President, Julius Maada Bio, to the Commission and the Members of the Ministerial Council for their unflinching support to him since his assumption of the leadership of Authority.
“Today’s Council Meeting is twofold – to discuss the allocation of statutory positions to member states, and to discuss the recruitment and status of staff from AES Countries from Grade P4 and below, which are critical barometers for gauging our institutional credibility and an affirmation of our regional solidarity.
“However, as we deliberate, our focus should not only be on the parameters of equitable distribution of these statutory positions across member states, but also, we should be particularly concerned about fairness and inclusivity to ensure that everyone is involved with a shared vision for the future.
“Our decisions must be grounded in due process, transparency, equity, and in alignment with the broader regional commitments, as building blocks to guarantee economic integration, regional peace and security, and our democratic tenets as a community,” he said.
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in her remarks, pledged Nigeria’s commitment to support the commission in the discharge of its responsibilities.
“As the host Country, we reaffirm our commitment to providing all necessary support to ensure the continued success of the Organization in all its endeavours.
“We fully recognize the importance of this exercise as an essential undertaking aimed at ensuring that all existing vacancies are duly filled, thereby enabling the Organization to operate at its optimal capacity.
“Nigeria remains steadfast in its role as a dependable partner, ever ready to contribute meaningfully to the strengthening of our Community institutions and to the realization of the noble objectives for which this Organization stands,” she stated.
