The Cross River State Local Government Service Commission says it has recruited no fewer than 4,000 staff across the 18 council areas of the state within the last year.
Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Darlington Eyo, disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Calabar on Tuesday.
Eyo explained that the commission inherited a depleted local government workforce of about 9,000 staff. With the latest recruitment, he said efforts are still ongoing to fill the remaining vacancies.
He noted that the mass recruitment, approved by Governor Bassey Otu under his “People First Mantra,” is the first of its kind in 37 years.
“The councils we met had a depleted workforce, so the governor deemed it necessary to fill the vacancies and provide a sustainable means of livelihood for the people.
In reality, we were supposed to meet about 12,000 to 13,000 staff, but what we found was just about 3,000. We approached the governor, and he approved the recruitment of more hands to meet the obligations of the councils,” he said.
The chairman added that more than 3,000 newly recruited staff who met the requirements have already been placed on the payroll, while further recruitment processes are being strategised.
On allegations of employment racketeering, Eyo dismissed the claims, insisting that the process was transparent and merit-based.
“To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing like buying employment. We operated an open process where even the son or daughter of nobody has been gainfully employed.
However, I won’t rule out that some persons outside may try to undermine the commission or pose as its agents. Anyone who patronises such persons will be exposed, as we have a system in place to fish them out,” he stated.
Eyo also revealed that an audit exercise uncovered 800 ghost workers on the local government payroll, who have since been expunged.
“This figure has already been removed from the payroll, and the audit is ongoing. We cannot continue to bear a huge wage bill when the actual number of staff remains low,” he said.
The chairman commended Governor Otu for providing the enabling environment that made the recruitment, training, and other reforms in the local government system possible.
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