Jonathan Tasks Perm Secs On Creativity

President Goodluck Jonathan has charged Federal Permanent Secretaries to employ creativity to bring out the best capacity from officers in the civil service.

The President gave the charge at the swearing-in ceremony of two newly appointed permanent secretaries at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa.

Jonathan said that the desire of his administration was to build a civil service that would operate effectively like what obtained in the private sector.

He said the militating factor against this desire was the laws which over-protect the civil servants and prevent erring officers from stiff sanctions.

“The current challenges we have is the capacity of officers below you and that is what a number of people complained about in the civil service.

‘’Before, we want the civil service to operate like the private sector, but the only thing is that the laws that operate in the civil service over-protect us.

“Unlike the private sector that we can easily do away with people we perceived to be dead wood or people we perceived not to be doing their work very well, in the civil service it is a little different. So, we must be creative in handling such issues.’’

Jonathan congratulated the new appointees, and charged them to put the experiences they have garnered in service to bear in their new assignments.

He also charged them to put in their best to move the country forward.

Our correspondent reports that two Permanent Secretaries; Alhaji Aliyu Ismaila-Numan (Adamawa) and Mr. George Austin (Ebonyi) took the Oath of the Office shortly before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council meeting.