The Enugu State Monitoring Team on Work Attendance and Productivity has issued queries to absentee workers after paying an unscheduled visit to the Ezeagu local government headquarters at Aguobu-Owa.
The team which was received by the chief executive officer, Administration, at the council, Mrs Lorita Akwuchie, also read the riot act to civil servants in the state during the surprised visit.
The unscheduled visit followed a video which went viral on the social media recently, showing the local government headquarters deserted on Friday, April 5, contrary to the directive by the Dr Peter Mbah-led administration to civil servants in the state to revive productivity by working five days in a week.
It is recalled that the Mbah administration is currently undertaking a staff audit of local government councils as it emerged that many of the people on the payroll, who also transit to the state’s pension payroll, do not come to work at all, while many others live outside the state and the country even as they draw salaries and other benefits from the local government system.
However, the voice-over in the viral video narrated that no single staff was found on duty, a development that has drawn the wrath of the government and the general public.
Taking a tour of all the offices and departments in the council headquarters, the team, which comprised the Head of Service, Mr Kenneth Ugwu; principal secretary to the governor, Mr Ken Chukwuegbo; chairman, Enugu State chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Ben Asogwa; and the chairman, Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, Comrade Ezekiel Omeh, among others, met only 36 out of the over 200 council workers.
The team vowed that the acts of negligence and absence from duty without permission by the council workers would not go unpunished and reminded civil servants across the state that productivity remains the watchword in the Governor Mbah administration.
