By Seyi Babalola
The governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, has stated that adding new employees to the state’s civil service is not a top priority for his administration.
The revelation was revealed by the governor on Thursday in Umuahia at the monthly interactive session with the media.
He said that when the government resolved its issues with the civil service, the question of employment will come up.
He added that there was an embargo that he made, stressing that it was still in place.
He complained that the number of persons in the civil service was still very high even after verification.
Otti decried the huge wage bill of about four billion naira for both local government and state on a monthly basis.
The governor, however, assured that the government was working assiduously on improving and enhancing the pay for the civil servants.
He said that government was aware that there were quite a lot of people in the service who might not be contributing at optimal levels and would need to do something about it.
He said: “So, it may not be a priority at this time to open up the doors to bring in new people, except if we have a way of exiting a few people.
“But you know with the civil service rules, it is not going to be very easy to exit people.
“What we are trying to do with the establishment of the Civil Service Commission and resumption of the new Head of Service and new Permanent Secretaries is to ensure that our people are adequately trained.
“This is to enable them operate their skills and perform better.”
