Application of Due Process in Recruitment and Selection of Personnel into the Federal Civil Service. Part 1

This study was conducted to investigate the constraint to the effective application of due process in the recruitment and selection of personnel into the federal civil service. Four objectives and four research questions guided the study. A sampling technique was used in carrying out the work. A total number of three hundred (300) respondents were used for the study. The instruments for data collection were a questionnaire and observation checklist. Three hundred (300) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the staff of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Abuja and two hundred and seventy-six (276) were returned representing a 92% return rate. The frequency table and Mean were the statistical measures employed for the data analysis. The findings revealed that there were no strategies or methods of recruitment and selection of staff into the federal civil service. However, the findings also revealed that practices such as political interference and corruption during recruitment and selection in federal civil service tend to undermine the principle of due process. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the federal civil service commission should formulate sound policies and practices that will minimize the degree of politicization and corruption in the recruitment and selection of staff into the federal civil service; make use of modern sources and techniques of recruitment and selection such as, E-recruitment process and Information & Communication Technology (ICT)-based selection resources as their source of recruitment and selection; and develop strategies or methods that will result in the effective application of due process in their recruitment and selection exercises.