The Plateau State Public Service Reform Committee, has told the State Government to pay the N18,000 minimum wage to civil servants in the state with immediate effect.

The committee Chairman who is also the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Gyang Buba, made the call while presenting the report of the committee to Gov. Jonah Jang on Monday in Jos, saying that Plateau State could generate N40 billion annually.

Buba, however, regretted that the highest revenue generated internally by the state had never exceeded N350 million annually, due to long years of rot in the state’s public service.

Buba called for the sacking of all workers recruited without following approved guidelines to avoid shortage of funds for the payment of the wages.

The chairman particularly recommended the sacking of about 10,000 teachers who did not have the minimum required qualification of National Certificate in Education (NCE).

He also recommended the redeployment of all local government staff to their local governments of origin to reduce rural-urban migration and develop the rural areas.

The chairman called for total overhaul of the state’s board of internal revenue, warning that the expected review of the revenue sharing formula might not necessarily translate to higher revenue allocation to the states.

He said that it was dangerous for the state to totally rely on the statutory allocation to fund payment of salaries, saying that salaries consumed about 85 per cent of the state’s total revenue.

According to him, it is unacceptable for only 20,000 people, which is less that one per cent of the 3.1 million population of Plateau to be consuming more than three-quarters of the state’s resources.

The royal father cautioned labour unions against indiscriminate resort to strikes, advising them to embark on strikes only when other options had failed.

Receiving the report, Jang promised to implement it, vowing to “crush” anyone who would stand on the way of its implementation.

He said: “when I wanted to implement former reports, people were using second tenure to threaten me but now that I have got the second tenure, then I will implement them.

“I assure you that even if it will cost me my life, I will implement the reports of all the committees set up by me and then let the hell come down. “If some toes need to be marched to implement these reports, they will be marched because it is the life of Plateau and it will out-live this administration,” Jang declared.

The governor said that he would set up white paper implementation committees immediately, advising those who thought the reports would gather dust to have a change of thought. Our correspondent  reports that the 11-man committee was inaugurated by Jang on March 31, with an initial six-week period within which to submit its report.

The committee was to look into the scheme and conditions of service in the state’s public service and make appropriate recommendations for effective and efficient service delivery. It was also to look into the recruitment, remuneration and disciplinary policies in the public service and make appropriate recommendations, among others.