Makinde Orders Payment of 4-Year Workers’ Promotion Arrears
The Governor Seyi Makinde-led government in Oyo State directed the payment of the four years promotion arrears, inherited by the present administration, to workers in the state.
This was as the state government has assured that there will be no further disparity in the elevation of workers in the state.
The Chairman of the Oyo State Civil Service Commission, Alhaji Kamorudeen Aderibigbe, disclosed this when speaking on the preparation for the training exercise for Directors of Administration, Directors of Personnel and Directors of Finance in the state civil service.
Noting that the training exercise is to ensure a hitch-free promotion exercise for the workers, he said the decision of Governor Makinde to offset the arrears of promotion was in conformity with the administration’s welfarism policy.
Aderibigbe said the governor is not unaware that the workers had laboured and deserved to be elevated in accordance with the Civil Service Code, and thus directed that there should be no situation where workers would be owed promotion allowance by the end of his first term.
“For the 35 years I have spent in Civil Service, I have never seen a governor that has been so magnanimous. Conducting four years promotion at a go is not an easy thing.
“The governor has sacrificed so much for the civil and public servants because they form the bulk of the economy of the state. Afterthis exercise, there won’t be arrears of promotion any longer.
“We are going to be due for 2017 to 2020 and by the end of this year, all MDAs must have gotten their data corrected so that as early as 2022 we will be doing the 2021 promotion.
“This government is working on not leaving any arrears of promotion at the expiration of its first four years in office.
“We are trying to prepare for the exercise and we are going to train all Directors of Administration, Directors of Personnel and Directors of Finance on the promotion exercise because it will involve the three offices.
“There are some ministries with Directors of Administration and Directors of Finance and Administration. There are some with Directors of Administration and Directors of Personnel.
“Where we have the three, they will all attend the training to sensitise them on the need for uniformity in the way the promotion exercise will be done.
“The training is about sensitising those who will be involved in the promotion exercise. There are variables that will determine the promotion eligibility of every individual, right from APER form.
“The number of year of the person on the grade level and the scheme of vacancy in the estimate have to be taken into consideration.
“Those teams will be trained so that all the MDAs will be on the same page. They will follow the civil service rules such that there will not be any overlapping and so that, after the exercise, there will not be complaints here and there.
“All the MDAs have conducted the exercise, there report will come to the Civil Service Commission where we will ratify whatever they bring for us and we want everything to be error-free.
“That is why we are having this training exercise. We have sent our roaster to all MDAs and we expect that by 12 March, 2021, all reports from these MDAs would have come in.
“The Commission will now sit on the report of the exercise and ratify whatever was submitted, depending on whether it was perfectly done. If it is not perfect, we will correct it.
“The governor has already approved Tutor-General for teachers which is an equivalent of a Permanent Secretary. He said it on the television over the weekend that he has approved that, while civil servants will now have the opportunity of rising to Level 17 in their service tenure, as announced by the governor during the New Year interfaith service,” he said.
The chairman of the state Civil Service Commission therefore urged the workers in the state service to reciprocate the gestures by supporting the government for peace and progress.
