ECOWAS meets to fill staff vacancies of departing members

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) appears to have finally overcome the exit of the Alliance of Sahel States-Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic, as foreign affairs ministers from countries in the regional body met in Abuja on Thursday to fill vacancies left by citizens of the bloc’s vanished countries.

The freeze is also expected to determine how to treat dual national staff members and staff members with both AES and ECOWAS nationalities.

Speaking at the opening of the extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers on the recruitment and status of staff from AES countries at grade P4 and below, the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Musa Kabba, said that the Council meeting aims to discuss the allocation of statutory positions to Member States and the recruitment and status of staff from countries AES grade P4 and below.

Kabba said the trials are key barometers to gauge our institutional credibility and an affirmation of our regional solidarity.

He noted that the focus should not only be on the parameters of fair distribution of these statutory positions among member states, “but we should also be particularly concerned about fairness and inclusiveness to ensure that everyone is involved in a shared vision for the future.”

Kabba noted that the meeting’s decisions “must be grounded in due process, transparency, equity and in alignment with broader regional commitments, as building blocks to ensure economic integration, regional peace and security and our democratic principles as a community.”

He added: “I would now like to draw the attention of this esteemed Council to the work of the Ad Hoc Ministerial Committee – a committee consisting of over 70% of our members, this makes the Ad Hoc Committee’s decision a fait accompli, which makes it urgent to review the procedures for the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committees.

“It is also important to note that members of the ad hoc committee would have reviewed the commission’s proposals on statutory positions which will inform our deliberations on the submission of the memorandum on proposals for the allocation of statutory positions to member states.”

In her welcome address, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said: “Nigeria remains steadfast in its role as a reliable partner, always ready to contribute significantly to the strengthening of our community institutions and the realization of the noble goals for which this Organization strives. We believe that with collective effort and renewed dedication, we can build a more effective organisation, responsive and fully functional that truly serves the aspirations of our region and beyond.”

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For his part, the President of the Commission, Aliou Touray, said: “This extraordinary Council was born out of necessity. For the last three years, we have struggled to fill vacancies in our institutions using a staff statute that limits the management’s ability to administratively speed up the process. It has therefore become necessary to refer to the Council from time to time to help us untangle the net. We are very grateful to the Council for the early waiver which allowed us to have a shorter period of time for vacancy announcements. With this we published and received a considerable number of applications.

“However, Excellencies, the current challenge is in processing these applications and scheduling interviews. These have been slower than the staff attrition rate, due to the aging workforce with an average annual staff loss to retirement estimated at 13 staff. The volume of applications is beyond the capacity of the recruitment companies in place, due to the largely manual method used in processing applications.

“Therefore, we had to recruit additional recruitment firms and sought your approval for these independent international firms to come to help with an end-to-end recruitment exercise. I have also directed the Internal Services Department to expedite the implementation of the e-recruitment system to speed up the processing of applications.

“With the sudden departure of a large number of our workforce, citizens of the countries that have left the Organization, namely Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, we are faced with the challenge of replacing them. We need the Council to guide us in distributing vacancies equally among all Member States, without sacrificing competence. As our Staff Regulations do not provide any guidance on how to allocate vacancies to specific Member States in order to achieve equity, it has become necessary for the Municipality to provide its own guidance on the way forward.

“We are therefore pleased to present to you a memorandum with proposals on how to achieve this fair distribution of positions and speed up the recruitment process. In presenting these proposals, the Commission has taken into account the current distribution of staff by Member State and the interest of Member States with low representation in the current workforce of the institutions. Our aim is to achieve fairness, ensure quality and consolidate the solidarity that strengthens our Community.

“As leaders, we are committed to protecting the interests of each member state, regardless of whether its citizens are represented in the leadership of its institutions or not. We have sworn to serve the entire community and not our narrow national interests. We therefore look forward to your deliberations and guidance on this matter.”

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