The Registrar of the National Examinations Council (NECO), Prof. Promise Okpala, ?said on Tuesday in Abuja that?staff transfers in the establishment were?punitive but a normal practice in?the council.
Okpala was speaking against?the backdrop of complaints about the massive nationwide staff transfers the council carried out earlier in the year.
“I can assure you that these transfers are not punitive measures as widely believed by some aggrieved staff who?were affected,’’ Okpala told the News? Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview.
He explained that the operations of the council were critical and required recycling of personnel from time to time to detach them from an environment that they were?“too familiar with’’.
“If a staff is left in a place for a long time, there is the tendency for them to get used to parents, teachers and even students.
“They tend to be sympathetic toward such friendship and that most often, compromises our examinations,’’ he noted.
He assured that transfers were mainly routine and were aimed at increasing efficiency and minimising cooperation with outsiders to compromise examinations.
Also responding to allegations of intimidating the NECO Branch of the Non Academic Staff?Union of Universities (NASU),?Okpala said; “we are not anti-union’’.
He said that although the activities of the union could adversely affect the operations of the council, it still respected employees’ fundamental human rights to freedom of association.
“NECO conducts examinations for students that were paid for by parents. If for instance we schedule examinations and make all necessary preparations for them and the union decides that?members should go on strike for any reason, imagine the scenario.
“Who now pays for the loses incurred from the cancellation of such examinations, parents or NECO?
The registrar said that in spite of all the issues, NECO had no choice but to seek dialogue on the way forward for the council and the union in the overall interest of the future of the children.
“We then wrote a letter inviting them for a meeting but they declined and said they do not recognise the management because it is illegitimate.
“Everything is documented, that is why we have not called them again,’’ he said.
The union?alleged that the registrar's stay in office was illegal after?his tenure expired in April.
The registrar had?ordered?transfer of about 200 staff from the headquarters to zonal and state offices, a development that culminated into?a peaceful demonstration at the council's headquarters. (NAN)