Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, has tasked public officers, especially the state’s head of service and commissioners to put a halt to the frequent roaming of youths and women into the state secretariat, the hub of civil servants, only to prevent them from carrying out their mandatory responsibilities.
He told the commissioners that their working environment must be worker-friendly. “I understand you have a lot of challenges with the youths and women coming to the state secretariat, this must stop because we have really made the environment good,” he said.
The governor spoke at the inaugural meeting of the State Executive Council (SEC) in Bauchi.
“The secretariat fence was renovated; what we need to do is to refurbish it. So, it’s a step-by-step job. The head of service has the responsibility for our security to ensure that we are safe and secure,” he stressed.
Senator Bala Mohammed explained that public officers must have visiting hours as, according to him, if they were not free, they would not be able to go to their respective offices, hence such intruding of youths and women into the secretariat must stop.
“Maybe I will be taking an inspection visit to the secretariat because it is time for governance. We would not allow the youths and women to be competing with us in our offices,” he noted.
According to him, the state government would come back to do another round of empowerment for the youths and women and reach them with some jobs to patronise them despite the challenges posed by scarcity of resources.
Governor Bala further stated that the state lacks adequate funds because his administration “inherited a state that is so much indebted with foreign loans” whereas the present administration “didn’t borrow such as that of water project, market and Ibb loans, with rising cost of naira exchange, which slot would be required in terms of deductions at the centre.
“These were in addition to some of the bank programmes we entered such as ACReSAL, NGKs; they are all loans and deductions will be made, we signed them. Focal persons are not the replacement of my responsibility or your responsibility.”
He further told the commissioners that the scourge posed by ghost workers syndrome must be dealt with saying, “Your predecessors have done very well; we must reduce the number, especially in health and education. I will hold commissioners responsible for that in terms of biometrics to fashion and flush out the impurities in our wage bill.”
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