The government of Bayelsa State
has explained why it gave approval of N10 billion for the upgrading of school
facilities, reports ITRealms.
Speaking to stakeholders in civil
service administration in Yenagoa who endorsed a number of reforms aimed at
restructuring the public service for effective delivery, the Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson said the state is
working at checking the syndrome of ghost workers and other unwholesome
practices.
He described as unacceptable, the
age long sharp practices in the state civil service, adding that the said
payment of over N4 billion monthly wage bill could no longer be sustained.
Dickson said that it has impacted
negatively on the developmental agenda of the restoration government.
According to him, the meeting was
convened to intimate the stakeholders of the financial position of the state
and chart a way forward in view of the prevailing economic situation.
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.
He stressed that only subventions
would be given to tertiary institutions as against the old practice of monthly
payment of salary.
Also the state government gave
approval of N10 billion for the purpose of upgrading 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 Governor announced that
henceforth, the State Environmental Sanitation Authority would be taken out of
the mainstream of the civil service, stating that only a few and relevant staff
would be deployed on secondment to the authority .
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 to
mention but few.
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