Some staff of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Kaduna State on Tuesday kicked against the elongation of the tenure of the institution’s Registrar and Bursar, saying it violated civil service rules.
The staff, who pleaded anonymity, stated this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Zaria.
According to them, the two officials have exceeded their tenure of office going by the provisions of the civil service rules and ought to have retired.
They alleged that one of the principal officers has three different dates of birth in his service record, which was contrary to the rule.
The workers also accused the management of the college of allowing contract staff to head departments in violation of extant rules guiding the civil service.
According to them, the situation has left qualified permanent staff stagnant.
They appealed to the Federal Ministry of Aviation to take immediate action in order not to compromise the integrity of the college.
They stressed that the intervention by the ministry was necessary to safeguard quality and safety standards the college was known for.
Reacting to the allegation, the Rector of the college, Captain Sam Caulckric, said already the matter had been referred to the ministry for advice.
The rector, who spoke through the institution’s Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, said the tenure elongation of the principal officers was based on the college’s scheme of service.
He said: “I am here on behalf of the rector who is unable to attend to you due to other exigencies.
“I will respond based on the issues you raised.
“On tenure issue, we have our own scheme of service, but somewhere along the line, from the ministry, we were made to understand that this scheme of service is not a recognised one.
“We have to fall back to civil service rules and regulations.
“We wrote to the Head of Service through the ministry seeking clarification on the tenure issue and they gave us two weeks to come back for response.”
On contract officers heading departments, the rector said NCAT was a peculiar organisation, which required that it maintained professional standard at all times.
Caulckric said: “This is an aviation industry and when you talk of aviation you talk of safety of lives of human beings.
“Therefore, we have to be very careful.
“It actually became necessary for us to allow some of these contract officers head departments.
“They must hold the office so that we will be able to stay afloat, because if we allow them to go there is every tendency that the system will collapse.
“But we are still trying to sort out things.”
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