Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has kicked against the recent appointment of 32 Permanent Secretaries in Bayelsa State Civil Service and other appointments in Ministries Departments and Agencies(MDAs) by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson.
The APC which described the appointments as “lacking in proper procedure” said it is also “lopsided” and meant to over bloat the State Civil Service.
The party in a statement by its Secretary, Alabo Martins which stated that though the party is not averse to such appointments, especially if they are in tandem with civil service rules and regulations regretted that the “appointments are in bad taste just as the motive is clearly political and an effort to put the popular in -coming government in a bad light by ensuring that we are financially strangulated.”
The APC noted that it is deeply worried over the alleged clandestine indiscriminate employment going on across various MDAs without recourse to due process.
The party which disclosed that illegal transfers are being made across MDAs added that some local government areas are more favoured than others in the on-going exercise.
The statement read in part “If the outgoing administration was aware of the existence of these vacancies in the top echelon of the public service of the state and that the situation was creating a lull in the service, why were the vacancies left unfilled until this last minute of the administration.
No doubt, the appointments are in bad taste just as the motive is clearly political and an effort to put the popular in- coming government in a bad light by ensuring that we are financially strangulated. We appreciate the fact that until February 14, 2020, the present administration has the constitutional powers to hire and fire but this responsibility should be carried out in the best interest of the state and its people. We must say that the present scenario is just for the satisfaction of some political interests and therefore falls far short of the wider interests of the state.
“We advise the Government to concentrate on completing uncompleted projects, such as the 8-year old Isaac Boro express way. We also call on Bayelsans to hold the Restoration Government response in the future if some of these decisions are reviewed for the betterment of Bayelsa. The employment is supposed to be on geographical spread, to the eight local governments. But, it seems to be one sided. Some local governments are having more slots than others. Some communities are having more slots than others. In some cases, a whole family was considered. The rules and procedures do not allow applicants to apply for employment directly to the Governor. But, this is practice in the state. We, therefore, advise the state government to do the right thing for the sake of posterity”