Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar has announced his administration’s plan to reward any whistle blower who exposes owners of ghost workers on the state payrolls, especially at the local government areas.This was contained in a statement issued by the press secretary to the governor, Malam Abubakar Al-Sadique, and made available to newsmen.Governor Abubakar made the statement in Bauchi at this year’s celebration of the Workers’ Day.
He lamented that few individuals have been draining the resources of the state running into billions of naira through the ‘ghost workers syndrome’. The governor said his administration was committed to bringing to an end the ugly trend.
Abubakar said celebrating the Workers’ Day was another way of recognising the contributions workers make, individually and collectively to the growth and development of every nation as prescribed by the International Labour Organisation, ILO.
He noted that the celebration also “avails workers in both public and private sectors the opportunity to rededicate themselves to the service of their organizations for the betterment of the country and to emulate our past leaders who made the public service what it is today”.
Governor Abubakar reiterated that the present challenges of workers are to emulate and follow the footsteps of their good leaders who made contributions to the development of Nigeria “through hard work, dedication, commitment and total support to the change mantra of believing in one indivisible Nigeria”.
He said his administration has not relented in extending the desired change agenda of the APC government to the grassroots and specifically to the civil service as evidenced in the continuous motivation of civil servants through payment of salaries and other allowances as and when due. He said this was achieved through the “blockage of leakages in government expenditure, revenue drive, sustained verification of workers and sansitization of the payroll to eliminate ghost workers, computerization of personnel records to aid effective planning, training and retraining of the workforce.”
The governor lamented that some of the State’s Civil Service Regulatory Books guiding the civil service which have either been obsolete or are not in tandem with present day realities have not been reviewed in the past 16 years, and announced the constitution of a committee comprising of seasoned administrators to review the Public Service Regulations, Financial Instruction, Financial Memorandum and Stores Regulations.