…Rules out retrenchment

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

Despite owing its estimated 100,000 civil servants a whopping N293 billion in salaries and allowances, the Federal Government has no plans to retrench, Head of Service of the Federation Winifred Oyo-Ita, said.
Rather, she said the Ministry of Finance has begun working out modalities to clear the debt in installments.
Oyo-Ita who spoke at the weekend, added that the government was cleaning its payroll of ghost workers as well as seeking innovative ways to generate revenue to boost its ability to fund programmes instead of relying on yearly appropriations.
According to her, the Muhammadu Buhari administration has human face and would not punish innocent civil servants when some syndicates in the service were feeding fat using ghost workers
“Yes, there is an economic recession now but definitely retrenchment is out of it. The administration of President Buhari is a government that has human face. The solution is not throwing more people into the street.
“The solution is to look inward and see how we can provide a more efficient and cost effective way of carrying out government business,” she said.
Oyo-Ita explained that one of the strategic plans of the Office of the Head of Service in the 2016/2017 fiscal year was to create new channels that would enable ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) generate additional revenues rather than depending on annual budgetary allocations.
“That is why goal number three of the Office of the Head of Service 2016/17 Strategy Plan is the establishment of Enterprise Development and Commercialization Orientation.”
Oyo-Ita who noted that this goal has been misinterpreted to mean government would now engage in buying and selling, explained that government would identify mandates in the various MDAs that can generate some form of revenue and commercial activity to reduce dependence on government subventions, annual appropriations.
“For example, in an office like the Head of Service, we are involved in a lot of capacity development activities especially our agencies. So, we are saying, why don’t we reach out and do more trainings for the public which can generate some revenue for government?”