C’River Retires 695, Sacks 3, Disciplines 15 Others In Sanitisation Of Civil Service

The government of Cross River State has sanctioned the compulsory retirement of nine civil servants, dismissal of one, demotion of three, and termination of the appointment of three. Five others were suspended while two suffered loss of incremental step.

The recent step according to government sources, was taken in order to sanitise the civil service they said reeks of rot.

Briefing the press on the activities of the commission in the last one year in Calabar at the weekend, chairman of the Cross River State civil service Commission, Sir Brian Ekpong revealed that between January last year and now, 695 civil servants were retired after attaining the mandatory 35 years of service or clocking the retirement age.

He said the decision to wield the big stick on errant civil servants was meant to serve as a deterrent to others, given the growing indiscipline in the service and appealed to public workers to be mindful of the work ethic rather than indulging in unwholesome practices.

For the period under review, the commission promoted 2, 580 workers, employed 375, re-absorbed 2, 314 had their appointments confirmed while 135 were either converted or upgraded.

Ekpong said the state governor “has continued to approve recruitment to fill vacancies in areas of critical manpower in the service.”

“Recently, we recruited 30 accounts graduates who are currently being groomed to become auditors. We have also this year, recruited some medical doctors and pharmacists for the Ministry of Health,” he said.

He added that soon, “the commission will interview candidates for employment to fill vacancies in the Ministries for Special Projects and Youths and Sports Development just as it has obtained approval to internally source for suitable civil servants for transfer to the state planning commission to fill vacancies in planning, research and statistics cadre”.

“Following the governor’s approval, the commission recently absorbed 120 Department of Public Transportation [DOPT] staff who had been on ad hoc employment to permanent establishment as civil servants and also absorbed 18 casual workers of the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development,” Ekpong said.

The chairman also lamented the high rate of academic underdevelopment in the civil service, saying so many workers were not abreast of current affairs, cannot sing the national anthem, recite the national pledge, do not know the name of the deputy governor of the state and unable to raise a memo in simple correct English.