Dickson vows to flush out payroll fraudsters, truants from civil service 

Ugwuanyi’s strides hinge on Prudent management of resources
Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, has restated his determination to flush out culprits of payroll fraud, truancy, employment scams and related vices from the state’s civil service.

He stated this yesterday in Yenagoa, insisting that the state government had resolved to take the state’s civil service from unscrupulous characters and create employment for the teeming youths.

A statement by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, quoted the governor as saying that the government would not tolerate those milking its resources without rendering commensurate services.

Dickson had taken the first practical step to confront the payroll scam in December 2017 when he directed that the salaries of 4,204 suspects from the eight local councils of the state be withheld.

While 1,329 of the affected workers came from the local government areas, 2,184 were from the primary school education system and 707 from the pensions payroll.

The State Government Committee on Civil Service Reforms investigating the anomaly uncovered 500 administrative officers in Sagbama Local Council, 5,000 non-academic staff at the Niger Delta University (NDU) and the other five state-owned tertiary institutions.

Iworiso-Markson had lamented that the conduct of a few criminal-minded individuals had been depriving the state of over N12 billion yearly.

He pointed out that the government had been battling the issue of over-bloated wage bill since it came to power in 2012.

He added that the state government deployed biometric data capture and other measures to fight the scam bringing down the wage bill from N6.7 billion to N3.9 billion.

Meanwhile, the representative of Nsukka East constituency in the Enugu State House of Assembly, Chinedu Nwamba, has said that prudent management of resources was responsible for the strides recorded by the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration.

Nwamba, who is also the Southeast Coordinator of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said during a town hall meeting in Nsukka that unlike some governors who spent public funds with impunity, Ugwuanyi had observed due process in all dealings.

He said: “The Governor has done well beyond the expectations of many people considering the meagre resources that have come to the state within the period.

“The way he manages resources is something other governors should emulate. For instance, this is the first time projects are going on simultaneously in all the communities in Enugu State. I’m not talking about wards but communities.”