Jonathan, Amaechi Task Civil Service On Reforms

President Goodluck Jonathan, has called on the leadership of the Federal and State Civil Service Commissions to use the opportunity of their 41st conference to reflect on the place of the civil service in the nation’s transformational journey.

The president made this call yesterday while declaring open the 41st Annual Conference of Civil Service Commissions in the Federation in Port Harcourt.

Represented by the Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Isa Bello Sali, the president stated the resolve of his administration to “continue to drive requisite levels of institutional and structural reorganisation to make the service better able to meet its constitutional responsibilities, urging the civil service to base its performance on “transparency, accountability, and professional integrity”.

He regretted that the civil service had deviated from its tradition of excellence, stressing that “everything must therefore be done to change this negative perception”. He called for a paradigm shift that involves critical introspection to enhance service delivery, insisting that “chief executive positions of strategic federal government agencies must be advertised to allow for competitiveness and ensure only the best are appointed into sensitive leadership positions”.

Earlier, the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who was represented by his deputy, Engr Tele Ikuru called for a review of the process of engagement and disengagement in the federal and state civil services, lamenting that the civil service is overbloated and consumes 70 per cent of the nation’s resources. He said that the state spends about N8 billion on workers’ salaries monthly, asserting that “we have so many people we don’t need in the civil service”.

He expressed confidence in the federal and state civil service commissions to redress the anomalies in the public sector, regretting a situation where “civil servants are given 35 years of service whether they work or not.” Amaechi stressed that “the time has come for us to review how people are employed in the civil service”.

In her welcome address, Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Deaconess Joan Ayo, said the conference would address issues that negatively affect the proper functioning of the civil service at the national and sub-national levels, assuring that the vision of the founding fathers of the nation in establishing the civil service was about to be re-enacted, urging participants to collaborate in ensuring that the conference lives up to its billing.