Kaduna orders payroll screening in workers audit

• Seeks deployment of more policemen to curb crime, terrorism 

IN its determination to thoroughly sanitise its civil service, the Kaduna State Government has announced the commencement of the second phase of verification exercise, hinging on the payroll of workers.

According to the state government, “this is to enable the government authenticate the outcome of the first exercise conducted recently.” It would be recalled that the government had earlier embarked on audit of civil servants in the state to detect ghost workers and preserve needed resources to fund vital areas of development.

Besides, the Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the Governor, Malam Samuel Aruwan, in a statement at the weekend, explained that the biometric verification of all civil servants in the state and local councils employment will resume on Monday, 10th August, 2015.

According to the statement, the Head of Service, Mrs. Alisabatu Dada Onazi, has already signed a circular to all MDAs and local councils detailing how the exercise will be conducted in the three senatorial zones of the state, Kaduna, Zaria and Kafanchan respectively.

Aruwan also added that all “Permanent secretaries/overseers, staff officers and other relevant directors are expected to identify their staff and their authentic APP, PSN Secret File Numbers and N Numbers for the purpose of the exercise”, stressing that, “they should also be at the verification centres to identify the staff.”

Said he: “For the purpose of documentation, every staff member is directed to present the original and photocopies of the following: Letter of first appointment, letter of present appointment and last promotion.

Every staff member is required to present any of these four documents for identification: Nigerian national identity card, voters card (temporary voters card will be accepted), international or ECOWAS passport and Nigerian national drivers licence.”

All civil servants and local council employees, the statement further added, “must physically present themselves for screening in this second round of the verification exercise as a pre-condition for the issuance of the July 2015 salary cheques.” “The biometric verification exercise is designed to provide the government an accurate and reliable record of its personnel numbers, and clean-up its payroll.

Data collected from the exercise will enable the government to determine if the billions of naira that are being expended monthly on staff salary are being paid to identifiable and verifiable civil servants, and make savings from an updated personnel record.”

Meanwhile, to check crime and terrorism in Kaduna, the state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Monday appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, to deploy additional 7,000 police officers to the state.

El-Rufai, who made the appeal during a courtesy call on him by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in-charge of North West zone, Mammah Ibrahim Tsafe, explained that the state needs more police personnel to enforce law and order.

The governor said the success of the campaign against cattle rustlers was a collaborative effort and commitment of five neighbouring state governors. El-Rufai said: “The joint security operations against cattle rustlers was a collaborative effort of all the governors involved, just that the activities of rustlers were more serious in Kaduna State.

We took it personal because our people lost more cattle than any other state. “We were lucky because Nigerian Army One Division headquarters is here in Kaduna and our committed police commissioner. I observed that before the general elections, Kaduna police command was different from others in terms of professionalism and commitment.

The deputy governor and I will continue to do our best for the police. Kaduna State is under-police and we requested 7,000 policemen and women. We are still waiting and appealing to the IGP.

With this, law enforcement will be enhanced and crime will reduce.” “It is easy to blame police without knowing the challenges they face. We will continue to focus on security,” the governor added. In his remark, Tsafe commended El-Rufai and other governors in the zone for being security conscious and their commitment to end the activities of cattle rustlers in the affected areas.

DIG Tsafe said: “On behalf of the IGP, we thank you for enhancing welfare and logistic of the police. Kaduna State governor boosted our morale and we will continue to do our best.”