From Yahaya Audu, Bauchi
As part of efforts to clean the Bauchi State government payroll and rid it of ghost workers, Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has announced government’s plans is to reward any whistle blower who exposes owners of ghost workers on the State payrolls, especially at the local government areas.
According press statement issued by thePress Secretary to the governor, Malam Abubakar Al-Sadique,and made available to newsmen, Governor Abubakar made the disclosure in Bauchi at this year’scelebration of the international workers’ day.
While lamenting that some few individuals have been draining the resources of the State,running into billions of naira through the ‘ghost workers syndrome’, the governor said his administration was committed to “bring an end” to the ugly trend.
Abubakar said celebrating the workers’ day was another way of recognizingthe contributions workers make, individually or collectively to the growth and development of every nation as prescribed by the international labour organization.
He noted that the celebration also “avails workers in both public and private sectors the opportunity to rededicate himself to the service of his organization for the betterment of the country and to emulate our past leaders who made the public service what it is today”.
Governor Abubakar reiterated that the presentchallenges for workers was to emulate and follow the footsteps of theirgood leaders who made contributions to the development of Nigeria “through hardwork, dedication, commitment and total support to the change mantra of believing in one indivisible Nigeria”.
“The fight against corruption and other societal vices, the struggle for the emancipation of the less-privileged in the society and also imbibed the culture of ‘change begins with me’ so as to restore the lost glory of the service” Governor Abubakar charges the workers.
He said his administration has not relented in extending the desired change agenda of the APC government to the grassroots and specifically to the civil service as evidenced in the continuous motivation of civil servants through payment of salaries and other allowances as and when due, which he said was achieved through the “blockage of leakages in government expenditure, revenue drive, sustained verification of workers and sensitization of the payroll to eliminate ghost workers, computerization of personnel records to aid effective planning, training and retraining of the workforce”.
The governor lamented that some of the State’s Civil Service Regulatory Books guiding the civil service which have either been obsolete or are not in tandem with present day realities have not been reviewed in the past 16 years, and announced the constitution of a committee comprising of seasoned administrators to review the Public Service Regulations, Financial Instruction, Financial Memorandum and Stores Regulations.
The governor said Government was looking into the housing plight of civil servants in the State, saying his administration is perfecting plans to provide affordable housing accommodation to civil servants.
Governor Abubakar assured “that as a progressive and all-inclusive government, we shall continue to welcome advice, suggestions and constructive criticisms that could help us move forward” and congratulated the organized labour for its reaffirmation to democracy in unionism through sustained industrial harmony
