The Cross River State Head of Service, Barrister Ekpenyong Henshaw, has set up the 2017 Civil Service Day celebration planning committee to work out modalities for the successful celebration of the day in the State.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Public Service Office (PSO), Office of the Head of Service, Mr. Emmanuel Enene-Eke, announced names of the committee members during the weekly management meeting in his office, Calabar.
He charged the committee members to ensure that the mistakes, challenges and failures associated with the planning of the Civil Service Day celebration in the past do not repeat itself, adding that the committee should serve as a pre-planning committee to carry out in-depth analyses of the past activities and make their recommendations to him within one week.
Members of the committees are, the Director, Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Stephen Eneji, Chairman, Head, Department of Welfare, Mr. Augustine Odey, members, Head, Department of Policy Management, Mr. Collins Odu, and Head, Department of Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr. Linus Bessong; all from the office of the Head of Service.
Speaking further, Mr. Enene-Eke, said it is laughable for civil servants to go borrowing to render service free to the public, therefore, staff should think on how to generate revenue to fund their office or activities and directed that, a time table be prepared for proper monitoring of civil servants in their places of work.
On the wrongful issuance of staff ID cards, he said it was unethical to ignore the protocol and procedures governing the issuance of ID cards to staff and directed that the procedures be returned to what it used to be, insisting that, proper system of transparency and accountability be involved to sustain the credibility of staff ID cards.
In her contribution, the Permanent Secretary, Manpower Development, Office of the Head of Service, Mrs. Aniedi Ekpenyong, said a template for manpower development would soon be out, adding that, government has not stopped the promotion exercise for civil servants but was only suspended to be continued shortly.
On the challenges hindering some departments,  the  Director,  Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Stephen Eneji, informed that, his department cannot function without mobility and that the only bus meant for the office was removed by unknown persons after being parked for a very long time due to lack of funds to service it, while Mr. Bassey Ogar Ekuri gave analyses of efforts made so far to recover the bus.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar