The Nigerian government has spoken on reducing the working days of Civil servants following hardships inflicted as a result of subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu.
The federal government said there is no plan to reduce working days over the hike in the price of petrol caused by the end of subsidy regime.
The Head of the Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan made this known in Abuja during a parley with media executives as part of activities marking the 2023 Civil Service Week.
According to her, the present administration was assiduously working on palliatives that would sustain civil servants and all Nigerians, hence no cause for alarm or work days’ reduction.
She stated that part of the measures is to purchase mass transit buses that will run on gas, with some buses already being converted from diesel to gas-powered vehicles.
She also said workers’ salaries were being reviewed for the increment to also cushion the impact of the petrol subsidy removal.
“We don’t have any plans to reduce working days for civil servants in view of the hike in PMS and cost of transportation. However, a committee has been set up to look into this. “The committee is currently working on getting gas-powered buses to convey civil servants to and fro. We’re also working on the conversion of some vehicles from PMS into gas. Also, the minimum wage is also being reviewed,” Yemi-Esan said.
She also said the ongoing verification exercise for civil servants across the MDAs had captured 69,854 officers across the six geopolitical zones.
She said the verification exercise under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Personnel Information System was to kick out ghost workers and retain credibly employed civil servants.
She revealed that the verification exercise had led to the detection of 1,618 fake or illegal employment letters and the subsequent suspension of the officers.
She also said her office was working towards full digitlisation and open government across MDAs.
She said her office was poised to achieve a minimum of 50 per cent functional official email addresses created in the Service by 2025; a minimum of 40 percent automation of ministries’ work processes, a minimum of 60 per cent access to government’s services online and the provision of clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply to guarantee the optimalisation of the digitalisation policy.
