FG spends N1 trillion on personnel cost annually -SGF

Posted by admin Latest Politics Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

THE Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, has said the Federal Government is spending over N1 trillion on personnel cost annually.

The SGF made the disclosure on Sunday, in a paper he presented at the official inauguration of the Manpower Development Institute, established by the Jigawa State government.

Alhaji Ahmed said the civil service should not be seen to actually consume a lot of overhead, because it was a reservoir of skills that had been left unattended to.

He said rightsizing rather than downsizing, through training and examinations, was the solution to getting rid of the useless ones in the civil service.

He bemoaned the extent of corruption in the civil service, public service and banking industry, saying that the development was worrisome, as it had gone beyond redemption, while lamenting that the anti-graft agencies that were established to tackle corruption had been rendered incapacitated.

“We have laws but we don’t allow them to work, this is an issue of serious concern,” he said, adding that reform in the civil service had become impossible because of the interference of the political class.

Alhaji Ahmed said if there was the political will, the civil service could be utilised to deliver more dividends of democracy, as in the case of training and re-training, which the Governor Sule Lamido-led administration had embarked upon in the state.

Also speaking, the chairman on the occassion and former chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Ambassador Ibra-him Kazaure, suggested regular conduct of induction courses for all political appointees, ministers and commissioners.

He said this would give them opportunities to be conversant with government’s policies and pro-grammes and trained them to understand the importance of civil service and how to work and interact with them to achieve the desired objectivewp_posts