Ghost workers: Zulum withdraws LG secretaries powers to recruit workers

Governor Babagana Zulum, has directed the immediate withdrawal of the recruitment powers exercised by the local councils’ chief administrative officers.

He also said the state government would embark on an immediate biometric data exercise of the workers in the state’s local government service to cleanse it of such malpractices.

Addressing a meeting of local government caretaker chairmen, secretaries, treasurers and other stakeholders, Governor Zulum expressed disgust at the situation where such recruitments were based on sentiments rather than qualifications, competence and experience.

He particularly observed that in the last 10 years the salary bill of local governments had continued to rise to the point of leaving nothing in the coffers of the third-tier government for meaningful development projects and programmes.

Professor Zulum emphasised that the state government would embark on a comprehensive biometric exercise of the local government service workforce to streamline the process and procedures associated with the local government system in order to make it a formidable tier of government responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

He, however, assured all local government workers that they would not be subjected to any hardships during the biometric exercise, assuring further that they would all continue to enjoy their salaries pending the completion of the exercise to determine the legitimate workers.

The governor urged the local government caretaker chairmen to ensure that they removed any illegitimate staff from the nominal role to be submitted to the local government verification committees to be set up soon.

He threatened to deal decisively with any caretaker chairman flouting his orders in this issue.