Akwa Ibom State Civil Service is comatose owing to many anomalies bedeviling the service, a retired permanent secretary has said.
Mr. Emmanuel Asanga, who had served as Permanent Secretary in the ministries of Information and Communication as well as Lands and Surveys, stated this Friday on a private radio station, Planet 101.1 FM, Uyo, under Team Nigeria programme.
He said the state civil service is the largest employer of labour, emphasising the need for the government to inject life to all sectors with a view to checking its asphyxiation.
Narrating his experience when he last visited one of the state’s ministries on official duty, the Permanent Secretary said that he met moribund and dusty work equipments and also noted that workers complained bitterly over poor management in the ministry.
He, however, lamented the non-payment of gratuity and pension arrears to many retired civil servants including permanent secretaries, quipping “It is advisable to pay these entitlements to the people concerned. One day, workers of today will become retirees of tomorrow.”
Answering questions from the anchor of the programme, Aniekan Udosen, the retired permanent secretary saw civil service as a vehicle for the interpretation of government policies and implementation of programmes, stressing the need for government to give its workers and pensioners proper care and attention.
He cited the case of a retired primary school teacher who died recently without collecting her gratuity and due to the fact that she had no money to buy drugs to control her terminal sickness, calling on government to pay gratuity to pensioners and accruable allowances to workers and imprests to ministries.
“Government is octopus in that it has many legs- one for politics and the one for administration. Civil servants are caretakers in many of these areas. I think it is advisable for government to look into the welfare of workers particularly payment of promotion arrears and granting of car loans to them. At the same time, I want workers to reciprocate by being hard working,” he noted.
On the state of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Akwa Ibom, Asanga dismissed it as persona non-grata. “The civil servants elected to belong to a body called by NLC. The body is supposed to fight the cause and defend the interest of workers. But there is no NLC in the state in that workers are wallowing alone in their hardships. Though it is the duty of government to weaken the union, but if the union is vibrant and its leaders are vibrant, government cannot cow it.”
However, one Etieno, a caller, attributed lack of working tools in many ministries to ignoble role of commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors.
According to the caller, if N3 million is given to a ministry as monthly imprest , a commissioner takes N1 million, permanent secretary collects N800,000 while directors and accountant share the remaining leaving the entire ministry bare.
Earlier, the anchor of the programme said his team had visited an unnamed ministry and an anonymous serving permanent secretary in the state to x-ray the activities and problems of civil service and the ministries to them.
From his findings, he discovered non-payment of promotion arrears to beneficiaries, accumulated promotions, illegal deductions from the workers’ salaries in September 2017, stoppage of workers’ training, no release of funds after budget approval for execution of projects and programmes as well as ministerial contracts being originated from outside the ministries, among others as teething problems confronting the service.
