By AHERHOKE OKIOMA, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State Administrative Officers Forum (BSAOF) has commended the Governor Diri-led administration for its commitment to the welfare of its workers in the state’s civil service.
The group gave the commendation when its members visited the Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, at the Government House, Yenagoa.
Speaking, Chairman of the forum, Dr. Stanley Sokari, commended the Diri administration for prioritising workers welfare, noting that the state government had demonstrated a friendly disposition towards workers by ensuring prompt payment of salaries, implementation of yearly increments and promotion of professionalism.
His word: “We appreciate the prosperity administration of Governor Diri and his deputy for their friendly disposition towards civil servants in the state. It is on record that Bayelsa State is one of the states in the country where yearly increments are implemented and where salaries are paid before the end of every month.”
He, however, urged the state government to urgently address the impending knowledge gap in the service through capacity building and sponsorship of administrative officers to relevant professional programmes.
Sokari lamented that only about 24 per cent of administrative officers in the state were members of relevant professional organisations, such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM) due to inability to meet the requisite financial commitments.
He also appealed to the state government to consider members of the forum for appointments into higher political positions that border on administration in the service.
In his remarks, Ewhrudjakpo canvassed institutionalisation of yearly awards for civil servants in the state to motivate them for higher commitment, professionalism and enhanced productivity.
He noted that civil servants, especially the administrative officers, constituted the engine room of policy implementation, stressing that the introduction of best staff awards in different ministries and agencies, would bring about significant improvement in the civil service.
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He said: “I am an apostle of positive reward, because once there is a mismatch between the excitement for performance and reward for work, the worker is likely to be demoralised and less productive.
“Because performance does not receive commensurate and proportionate reward, the reward must not necessarily be bread and butter, that is, in monetary terms. There are other factors of motivation.
“So, we can institute the annual civil service award cutting across all the ministries to ensure that every ministry produces first, second and third best staff members.”
Ewhrudjakpo, who also advocated continuous capacity building of civil servants, assured that the state government would do everything possible to make the state’s Public Service Training Institute functional to check capital flight and generate higher revenues for the state.
Underscoring the importance of administrative officers in the state’s civil service, Ewhrudjakpo stressed that it was necessary for government to be guided in the appointment of permanent secretaries on the basis of administrative experience, merit and competence.
He, therefore, admonished the administrative officers in the state to be more proactive and set up an advocacy team to impress on the government the need to appoint administrative officers as permanent secretaries.
Ewhrudjakpo assured the forum that government would support its forthcoming annual lecture series on improvement of the state’s civil service.
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