By Austin Ogwuda
…. screening continues till next year as only half of the workforce has been screened
Following the ongoing screening exercise carried out by the Chairman of Delta State Civil Service Commission, who doubles as the Chairman of the State Screening Committee, Chief Roseline Amioku, over 200 Delta State Civil Servants have been sent packing over falsification of age and working with forged credentials.
The sack which is with immediate effect was disclosed by Civil Service Commission boss while fielding questions with newsmen on Monday at her office in Asaba.
According to her, “A lot of people are blowing whistle to us. We decided to act swiftly by investigating and look at the files of civil servants. We found out that hundreds of civil servants who are supposed to have retired five years ago are still in service receiving salary.
“So, it was based on this that the Delta State Civil Service Commission decided that the screening exercise was worth undertaking. Many of them reduced their age to the extent that their own children are now senior to them”, she lamented.
Continuing, the Chairman stated that, ”Over two hundred civil servants have been retired over age falsification already. And we have just started. We have not done fifty per cent of the exercise which is going to continue till next year. We are screening the entire workforce of Delta State”.
Continuing, Mrs Amioku said that the State government was on course and called on Deltans to disregard the wrong narratives being speculated to the effect that that the government was merely forcefully retiring civil servants in order to cut the huge wage bill it is saddled with.
She clearly pointed out that the ongoing screening exercise in the State revealed that “the majority of those still working in the public service are above working age”.
*Credit: Sam Erhunmwunsee, The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN
