Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has said that employing more civil servants into the Abia State civil service is not the priority of his administration currently.
The governor who stated this during an interactive session with journalists in Umuahia, said that the issue of employment would arise when the government has finished dealing with what it met in the civil service. Gov. Otti revealed that he placed an embargo on employment and that it was still in place.
Alex Otti lamented that the monthly wage bill for both state and local government workers is about four billion Naira, which he said was huge. He noted that the number of persons in the civil service was still very high even after the verification carried out by his administration.
Speaking on workers productivity, Gov. Otti said that the government was aware that there were a lot of people in the civil service who are not contributing at optimal levels and that he will do something about it adding that for these reasons, his government will not open up the doors to bring in new people except if he has a way of sacking some people first.
The governor however quickly added that it is not going to be very easy to sack civil servants due to the civil service rules. He also assured that the government was working hard to improve and enhance the pay for civil servants in the state.