The Secretary of Benue
Chapter of the Civil Service Union, Mr Joseph Shimaor, has appealed to politicians to refrain from bastardising civil service recruitment procedures.
Shimaor told newsmen yesterday  in Makurdi that most of the problems in the civil service were created by politicians through recruitment of workers without recourse to due process.
He said such recruitments were made without any treasury provisions and these were partly responsible for the over bloated workforce in many of the state’s civil service.
The union scribe said that “for any recruitment or replacement in the service, the states must make adequate treasury provisions to accommodate the new intake”.
He expressed regret that the detailed procedure on recruitment of workers into the service had been jettisoned by politicians.
“Overtime, some powerful political office holders jettisoned the process by bringing into the service people without regards to the due process.
“Once that started, it became difficult to regulate the process of recruitment and people were coming in even through the exit channels.”
According to him, it is only a government with a strong political will that can tackle this menace.
He, therefore, appealed to political office holders in the country to refrain from interfering with the duties of the civil service commission and stop ordering recruitments outside the approved channels.
He blamed the over bloated civil service in the country on uncoordinated recruitment processes through unauthorised channels.
Shimaor commended the introduction of biometric verification of workers by most state governments to check the incidence of ghost workers.
He, however, cautioned against hasty implementing of the exercise.
“The biometrics as a means of verifying the authentic workforce of the government which leads to the payment of salaries using workers’ biometrics is encouraged.
“This should, however, be done with caution, the state governments desiring to implement it should take it step by step to avoid crashing the system.”
He commended Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue for halting the e-payment and resorting to the manual payment when he discovered the process was leading to workers’ hardship.
He blamed those implementing the scheme in the state for “being too hasty”, thereby making series of errors in the payment.
Commenting on the planned salary cut by some governors in the country, the Civil Service Union scribe said the union was ready for them.
“As they are planning to carry out their salary cut, we are also mobilising for a showdown with them; we shall see the outcome of the encounter.”