Dickson, stakeholders endorse new civil service reforms

…sets aside N10 billion to upgrade facilities in schools

Bayelsa state Governor, Seriake Dickson has again reiterated the need to rid the state of ghost workers, absenteeism and other unwholesome practices in the public service system, saying it the only way of improving the dwindling fortune of the state, occasioned by the shortfall fall in oil revenue.

The governor was speaking when the government of Bayelsa State and relevant stakeholders in the civil service, labour and traditional rulers on Wednesday in Yenagoa, meet to discuss the future of the state.

The meeting which was held at the instance of the governor, few days after he told civil servants in the state that government will no longer tolerate absentees in the civil service, endorsed a number of reforms aimed at restructuring the public service for effective delivery.

The meeting was also aimed at checking the syndrome of ghost workers and other unwholesome practices in the public service.

While assurng the stakeholders of his commitment to reposition the state public service, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson called for the support of stakeholders in the implementation of the various reforms.

He described as unacceptable, the age long sharp practices in the state civil service, adding that, the monthly wage bill of over N4 billion was no longer sustainable.

According to him, the meeting was convened to intimate the stakeholders of the financial position of the state as well as chart a way forward, in view of the prevailing economic situation in the country.

Some of the reforms as highlighted by the governor and endorsed by the stakeholders in attendance include; approval of N200 million monthly subvention to the state owned Niger Delta University, stressing that, from henceforth, only subventions would be given to tertiary institutions as against the old practice of monthly payment of salaries.

The Governor also announced the approval of N10 billion for the purpose of upgrading the facilities in all its tertiary institutions across the state and also instituted a special Education Safety Corps to ensure the safety of its schools.

The governor urged all tertiary institutions to key into government’s vision of adopting a single accounting system to check fraud, stressing that education levy would be introduced for all workers in the state to fund activities in the sector.

According to Governor Dickson, as part of the reforms, the state civil service commission will be reconstituted just as government did to that of the local government service commission.

He stressed that further steps would be taken to re-organize the state’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies pointing out that staff with requisite qualifications and skills would be redeployed to relevant ministries and institutions.

Also, the state government has created a N10 billion Enterpreneur Development Fund to empower people that may voluntarily opt out of the civil service arising from the re-organization of the service.

The stated that, henceforth, the State Environmental Sanitation Authority would be taken out of the mainstream of the civil service, with only a few and relevant staff to be deployed on secondment to the authority.

It was resolved that, to tackle the problems of absenteeism, and ghost workers syndrome, attendance registers have been introduced in all the MDAs which would be properly monitored by special teams.

The meeting had in attendance, the traditional rulers, captains of Industry, members of the State House of Assembly, top government functionaries, local government chairmen as well as representatives of the organised labour.