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…Connects Govt House, state sec to 330 KVA
From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
As part of measures to ensure that civil servants in the state stay committed to work, Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, has directed that the state secretariat be automated to check workers’ behaviour to work especially absenteeism from duty.
The Governor who also expressed his commitment to workers welfare said he has connected Government House, Makurdi and the State Secretariat, Makurdi to the 330 KVA source of power supply.
He said the gesture was to provide a conducive working environment for civil servants to enable them perform optimally.
Speaking to newsmen in Makurdi on Friday, Chief Press Secretary (CPS), to the Governor, Kula Tersoo, said to boost the morale of state workers, Governor Alia has regularized the payment of salaries which comes 25 other every month, and would soon commence the payment of backlog of other emoluments owed workers and retirees in the state.
Kula said workers can only stay at their duty post and perform to the best of their ability when they are fully motivated saying “the Alia administration plans to change the fortunes of Benue and it would start with the civil service which have the capacity to frustrate government’s policies and programmes.
“For the first time, 330 KVA has been extended to Government house, Makurdi and now we have light in government house for at least 18 hours, daily, before you think of alternative source of power.
“Also those of you that have been here for a while know that light has been an issue in the Benue State secretariat and His Excellency has also extended 330 KVA to the secretariat. He did this because he has noticed that civil servants were not motivated and it’s only when the workforce is motivated that there is rise in productivity level.
“If you motivate people, you motivate them to give you optimum performance. So we intend to check laxity, truancy and in checking truancy, His Excellency has already directed that all offices in the secretariat be automated. Therefore, every civil servant will have his or her own card and the moment they swipe the card, it will register the time they came to work.
“Also you know that salaries has been regularized and are paid on or before 25th of every month. So tell me why they (civil servants) will not be motivated?
On other welfare packages to motivate workers to put in their best, the CPS noted that “His Excellency has also insisted that Civil servants in the state must be retrained; that they must go for training, at least once in a year.
“He also insisted that promotion must be constant, but must be on merit, so every civil servant that is worth promoting should be one that wrote and passed his or her exams.”
Kula also said that henceforth, civil servants who retire from service would be paid their gratuity, one week after retirement, while their pensions will begin to run, three months after.
According to him, “People who have less than one year to retire are now begging to retire. One, because pension is regular. Whoever retires from service from the 29th of May, 2023, that we took over, his or her gratuity will be paid in full. So going forward, once you retire your gratuity will be paid in full and three months after you will begin to collect your pension. His Excellency has implemented that and we are going with it. You can verify that. So people are not afraid to retire now.
“What is now left is the arrears of the backlog of gratuity and pensions that were on ground before we came. But we will gradually clear the backlog and this issue of bringing my father for capturing will be a thing of the past.
“However, civil servants and pensioners should be patient. They should avoid the situation where people are pushing them to ask for their arrears. We came and we met no kobo. By the end of this month, we will be five months in office. Let them be patient about the backlog. It’s not easy, but we are doing everything possible to raise money and attend to that,” he said.
