BY PATRICK MGBODO
Young and qualified Deltans may soon find fresh opportunities, as the Delta State Government has hinted plans for a massive civil service recruitment drive to fill existing vacancies across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The Chairman, Delta State Civil Service Commission (CSC), Lady Roseline Amioku, confirmed the development in an exclusive interview with The Pointer in Asaba, the state capital.
Lady Amioku explained that, following the ongoing physical and certificate verification exercise ordered by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to sanitize the civil service, many officers found no longer qualified to remain on the government payroll have been compelled to retire.
‘’If you remove 200 people, for instance, the money used to pay their salaries is almost enough to employ about 1,000 young officers because their salaries will not be as big as the salaries of those who have been there. So, definitely, there will be mass employment’’, she said.
She added that the verification exercise has also uncovered numerous officers who abandoned their duty posts for greener pastures elsewhere, exposing ghost workers and prompting many to tender their resignation or opt for voluntary retirement.
The state civil service commission chairman noted that the verification exercise was not intended to witch-hunt anyone but to sanitize the system for a more effective and efficient civil service.
‘’You will be shocked at the rate at which we are catching those civil servants who falsify their ages. Some of the affidavits they swear look so real and you would think that they are doing the right thing but by the time you go into other nitty-gritty in their files, you will find something completely different, especially in their confidential files. Many of them are over 60 years old and they are still working.
‘’We are not here to witch-hunt anybody. What we do here is just to be sure that people are doing the right thing. This is why I told my team that we are not going to work independently’’ she said.
Some of the cases she cited include a woman who was caught working with her daughter’s credentials and a man who deducted 14 years from his age to delay retirement, even as she warned that those caught in service when they should have retired would pay for the monies they illegally earned from the government.
Lady Amioku commended Governor Oborevwori for being sensitive to the yearnings of Deltans, citing his numerous human capital empowerment and infrastructural development initiatives across the state since he assumed office two years ago.
The Pointer earlier reported that the verification exercise commenced with officers on Salary Grade Level 15 to 17 and has trickled to officers on Salary Grade Level One to 14 across all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
