Katsina NLC Backs Govt’s Staff Audit

Francis Sardauna in Katsina 

The Katsina State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has thrown its weight behind the ongoing staff audit and verification exercise by the state government.

The state NLC chairman, Dr. Hussaini Hamisu, who made the union’s position known in a chat with newsmen, said the government’s staff audit was not a witch-hunt or an agenda to sack civil servants in the state.

Governor Dikko Umaru Radda had recently inaugurated a staff audit and verification committee headed by Mr. Rabi’u Abdu Ruma to ‘ascertain the number of civil servants’ in the state.

Hamisu explained that the exercise is aimed at restructuring and rejuvenating the state civil service and its workforce for efficient and effective service delivery.

He said the four-week exercise will also clean up the payroll system, validate the actual number of state workforce and establish areas of vacancies across various sectors of the public service.

Hamisu, who is a member of the committee, said: “I want to assure workers that the staff audit is not a witch-hunt. It is normal for every new government to verify its workers. Workers who are on the payroll and captured in this exercise will not be denied their entitlements.

“I will not participate in any exercise that will negatively affect my members. Government is not ‘witch-hunting’ any worker and nobody will be sacked after the exercise.”

He added that the staff audit and verification exercise will also strengthen the capacity of the state government to satisfy the needs of the workers, the members of the public and the state leadership.