By Onwa Ekor
After over three decades of neglect and abandonment by previous administrations, Cross River governor, Prince Bassey Otu, Wednesday, carried out the official commissioning of the completed Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) complex, in Calabar.
Speaking at the event, Otu charged management and staff of the Commission to, before the occupation of the building, get rid of ghost workers who continuously threaten the State wage bill while making it cumbersome to tackle issues of unemployment and speedy payment of gratuities.
The governor who was at the event with his deputy, Rt. Hon Peter Odey, former Military Administrator of Kwara, Col. Pam Ogar, among other dignitaries said, “as you move in here, change your character and attitude, let ghost workers be phased out as you are moving completely to a new environment.”
He charged the Commission to be proactive and deliver rightly, knowing the exact number of staff on the payroll to ensure that at the end of each staff service year, such staff departs with his or her entitlement without hitch.
“We want the results very accurate, to know the number of staff that we have so that at the end of their service and they want to retire, or any staff in government, should be able to on the day of retirement, not longer than one week, get all his or her entitlement.
“A situation where we are paying entitlement to ghosts is a funny one, we want that not to be part of this edifice, I have given the Chairman a task so that all those mess will be cleaned up,” Otu cautioned.
The governor also informed that his administration would not leave any stone unturned especially on issues surrounding the assets and properties of the State including abandoned projects, maintaining that, government funds must not be wasted.
His words: “All our assets, all our properties that were in peoples hands because of concession or whatever, we are recovering all of them. I believe that for now, we are in 50 percent and some of those ones we have cancelled, if you go and see the jobs done there like Garment Factory, Calachika, the pharmaceutical company is on test now, most of them if you go there now, you will be very shocked what we transformed all these to because, government funds were invested into all these projects and we cannot allow them to lie waste.”
Chairman, Local Government Service Commission, Darlington Bassey, applauded the governor for injecting a new lease of life into the Commission through the formal commissioning of the edifice, including the creation of additional departments in the local government system as well as the recent law where a staff of the local government can rise to the position of a Permanent Secretary.
Bassey who assured that the Commission would do its best to compliment efforts of government also disclosed that recently ghost workers were discovered in the local government level.
“We set up an ad hoc committee to ensure that we check the over bloated wage bill, to the glory of God, over 200 ghost workers were discovered and this development will significantly reduce our wage bill,” the Chairman who also appealed for mobility to enable them traverse the nooks and crannies of the state, said.
Giving an overview of the project, the Project Coordinator, Malibu Engineering Company Ltd, Iman Maiwada, explained that the facility serves as the headquarter of the Commission designed to enhance the efficiency of human resource management and governance at the local government level.
According to Maiwada, the edifice followed international best practices through the provision of parking space and access for physically challenged persons.
She added that other features of the building include, special conference hall, modern office spaces, advanced training facilities as well as secured and accessible library system for efficient documents management.
Earlier, Commissioner for local government, Chief Felix Idem, averred that the event was a commemoration of the vision of the present administration in the state to serve the citizens more effectively and efficiently.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs Caro Asikpo, the Commissioner pointed out that the new space represents a fresh path and opportunity to foster greater collaboration, engage citizens in the discussion making process and to deliver essential services to members of the community.
He further assured that “with the state of the art edifice, we are better positioned to address local government critical issues and respond to the aspirations of our citizens.”
