The Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Federal Government has clamped down on the movement and redeployment of civil servants directing the Ministries, Departments and Agencies to stop the movement of officers belonging to recognized professional pools without the approval from the authorities responsible for their postings.
The directive is coming as the administration of President Tinubu intensifies efforts to tackle concerns over fake government agencies, ghost workers, and weakness in the personnel and institutional control system.
The directive was given in a circular dated August 24, 2026 with reference number HCSF/3065/V.I/275, by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The directive cautioned that officers posted to MDAs from recognized professional pools must remain in their approved offices, departments, divisions, units or sections unless their deployment is reviewed and approved by the relevant authority.
The circular, which was addressed to the Chief of Staff to the President, ministers, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, permanent secretaries, service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police and heads of relevant Federal Government institutions and agencies, was reported by the PUNCH.
The Head of Service said it has noticed that some MDAs still moved officers posted to them from professional pools without approval from the relevant posting authority.
It read: “The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has noticed that some Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies have continued to redeploy officers posted to them from the professional pools of the OHCSF and other recognized pool offices without approval of the relevant posting authorities.”
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The circular said this is against the earlier Circular Ref. No. HCSF/3065/VI/218 of January 2, 2025, on the prohibition of internal redeployment of pool officers within MDAs.
The OHCSF circular is intended to clarify the chain of authority over who can deploy, move and supervise professional officers within the Federal Civil Service.
It directed that permanent secretaries may only deploy or redeploy officers on the local staff establishment of their various MDAs to areas where their services are required for effective and efficient service delivery.
However, officers seconded to an MDA by the OHCSF or another recognized professional pool are governed by a different rule.
“Officers posted to Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies by the OHCSF or any other recognized professional pool shall remain in the offices, departments, divisions, units or sections to which they were specifically posted in accordance with their posting instructions,” the circular said.
“The concerned posting authority will have to approve prior to any internal redeployment of such officers.
However, the OHCSF conducted a qualification of officers on Grade Level 07 to 14 who were posted to fill vacancies in departments.
However, such officers could be deployed internally in divisions, units and sections where there are vacancies as long as it is within the scope of their respective pools or cadres, the circular said.
The circular said, “Where operational exigencies require any review of such postings, the matter shall be referred to the appropriate posting authority for review and necessary approval.”
The circular stated that, under the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, recognized cadres include Administrative Officers, Executive Officers (General), Store Officers, Stock Verifier Officers, Confidential Secretaries, System/Programme Analysts, Statistical/Data Processing Officers and Library Officers. The Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office, OHCSF, provides supervision for these officers.
At the Federal Ministry of Justice, the recognized pool consists of the State Counsels, with the Solicitor-General/Permanent Secretary as the managing authority.
The professional pool of Procurement Officers is managed by the Bureau of Public Procurement under the authority of the Director-General of the Bureau.
The Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation runs the pool of Information, Press and Public Relations Officers, under its Permanent Secretary.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has two recognized cadres namely Account Officers and Executive Officers (Accounts). The managing authority is the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The pool of Resident Auditors is under the Auditor-General for the Federation and is handled by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
The circular also recognized any other duly recognized professional pool office with the applicable cadre and managing authority.
The detailed listing indicates that professional officers posted to MDAs are subject to certain administrative structures and cannot simply be transferred from one establishment to another at the discretion of individual officials.