Bayelsa State Government has asked its workforce to brace up for the<\/p>\n
global economic challenge, as the practice of augmenting monthly salary
\nwith bank loans is not sustainable.<\/p>\n
With a monthly wage bill of N4 billion for workers coupled with the
\nshortfall in the monthly allocation from the Federation Account of between
\nN3 to N4 billion, the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson said it would
\nbe difficult for government to meet its financial obligation.<\/p>\n
Speaking with journalists on Thursday in Yenagoa, Dickson said his
\nadministration would meet with stakeholders towards devising a policy
\naimed at solving the problem of salary payment in the state.<\/p>\n
According to him, steps are already being taken to sanitize the civil
\nservice with the aim of blocking wastages and loopholes to ensure greater
\nproductivity and effective service delivery.<\/p>\n
Dickson said, \u201cThere have to be some discussions with workers and
\nstakeholders. We cannot be borrowing to pay salaries as we have been
\ndoing. Our workforce minus political appointees, we need about N4 billion
\nto pay salaries; the situation is not sustainable and realistic because of
\nour development agenda.<\/p>\n
While allaying fears of workers, the Governor assured that rather than
\nembark on retrenchment of the workforce and the minimum wage, greater
\nemphasis will be placed on professionalism in the civil service in his
\nsecond term.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cA lot of states are going to have crisis this year, even the
\nfederation itself will face crisis and it\u2019s not peculiar to Bayelsa
\nstate. It is important that the workforce in Bayelsa State should learn
\nto appreciate these things before they jump here and there instigated by
\nfailed politicians who couldn\u2019t win election but know how to sponsor
\ndemonstrations of old pensioners that they couldn\u2019t pay when they were in
\noffice.\u201d<\/p>\n
While admonishing civil servants in the state against unwholesome
\npractices such as involvement in partisan politics, payroll fraud and
\nmultiple employments, the Governor called on workers to be dedicated to
\ntheir duties and loyal to the government of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things going on; people have their names in several
\nvouchers, earning salaries above their grade level and all of those
\nthings are going to be corrected. I don\u2019t also believe that we should
\nreduce the minimum wage but if our government is getting N3 or N4 billion
\nand our wage bill is N4 billion, then there should be a discussion. I
\ndon\u2019t believe that we need to retrench workers because of the economic
\ndownturn.<\/p>\n
The governor added that any civil servant found culpable of contravening
\nthe civil service rules would be made to face disciplinary measures.<\/p>\n
Dickson expressed his administration\u2019s intention to bequeath a
\ndepoliticised civil service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bayelsa State Government has asked its workforce to brace up for the global economic challenge, as the practice of augmenting monthly salary with bank loans is not sustainable. With a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n