Employment is not my priority right now – Alex Otti of Abia

Abia Governor Alex Otti says hiring more personnel for the state’s civil service is not a top priority for his government.

This was disclosed by the governor on Thursday in Umuahia at the monthly interactive session with the media.

According to him, the employment issue would come up once the government had resolved its issues with the civil service.

He says there is an embargo that I put in place, and it remains in effect.

Even after verification, he claimed that there were still a lot of people in the public service.

Otti bemoaned the massive monthly pay expense for the state and local governments, which comes to over four billion naira.

The governor, however, assured that the government was working assiduously on improving and enhancing the pay for civil servants.

He said that the government was aware that there were quite a lot of people in the service who might not be contributing at optimal levels and would need to do something about it.

He said, “So, it may not be a priority at this time to open up the doors to bring in new people, except if we have a way of exiting a few people.

“But you know, with the civil service rules, it is not going to be very easy to exit people.

“What we are trying to do with the establishment of the Civil Service Commission and resumption of the new Head of Service and new Permanent Secretaries is to ensure that our people are adequately trained.

“This is to enable them to operate their skills and perform better.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor spoke on a range of issues concerning his developmental stride in areas of infrastructure, agriculture, education, health, and others.

NAN