Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi State has reiterated the his administration’s commitment to restore the lost glory of the state’s civil service through the actualization of a knowledge derives service.
The Governor who was speaking at the swearing in ceremony of 12 new Permanent Secretaries at the Banquet hall, Government House Bauchi, regretted that at the moment, the service has lost the culture of commitment, dedication, selflessness and sacrifice.
He stressed the need for civil servants to be acquainted with the norms and values of the service to avoid trial and error in the discharge of their duties and tasked Permanent Secretaries, Directors and all cadres of the civil service to be conversant with public service rules, Financial Instructions, Stores Regulations and extant circulars so as to be properly guided against committing avoidable infractions.
The Governor explained that the new Permanent Secretaries have been appointed after passing the prescribed civil service examination and in consideration of their satisfactory conduct and performance as Directors and urged them to practically demonstrate their competence and justify their appointments by effectively and efficiently discharging their duties as Permanent Secretaries.
According to him, besides being the accounting officers of their Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Permanent Secretaries are advised on the implementation of government policies and programmes based on the extant rules of the Civil Service and called their attention to, as of necessity, subordinate themselves to the political leadership of their Ministries, Departments and Agencies and work harmoniously with them for effective service delivery.
He assured that as a responsible and responsive government, his administration has resolved to restore sanity to the civil service so as to get the State back on track, thereby putting a stop to the syndrome of business as usual and promised that the state government would not hesitate to invoke the full wrath of public service rules on any civil servant, including Permanent Secretaries, found wanting in the discharge of his or her duties.
Governor Bala Pledged to provide conducive working environment to civil servants and assured to do more in due course to provide civil servants with adequate office equipment and furniture to ease their work and ensure job satisfaction.
On the backlog of gratuity owed to both State and Local Government retirees, the Governor disclosed that from 2019 to date, Five Billion, Eight Hundred and Thirty-Five Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighty Seven Naira, Sixty Seven Kobo (N5,835,985,487.67) to reduce the backlog in addition to the N800,000,000:00 recently released for the same purpose.
He assured that that with the adoption of the contributory pension scheme by the State Government, his administration is working towards going to the capital market to float a loan or approach PENCOM to liquidate the backlog of gratuity and appealed to senior citizens who have spent better part of their lives in the service of the State to exercise more patience as Government strive to pay their gratuity once and for all.
Responding on behalf of the sworn in Permanent Secretaries, Ahmed Ali Ranga, Permanent Secretary, Political Research and Economic Affairs, office of the Secretary to the State Government, expressed gratitude to Governor Bala Mohammed for finding them worthy of the elevation and promised to justify the confidence reposed in them.
Gov. Bala swears in new 12 Permanent Secretaries.
