FG will not sack civil servants despite recession, says Oyo-Ita

The federal government says it has no plans to sack civil servants despite the recession in the country.

Winifred Oyo-Ita, head of service of the federation, on Sunday said the government was only getting rid of the ghost workers on its payroll.

Oyo-Ita noted that the Muhammadu Buhari administration cares about the plight of Nigerians and as such, has no intention to retrench civil servants.

“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,” she said.

“The solution is to look inward and see how we can provide a more efficient and cost effective way of carrying out government business.”

Oyo-Ita said that one of the plans of her office is to seek innovative ways to generate revenue to boost its ability to fund programmes instead of relying on annual appropriations.

“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 Commercialisation Orientation,” said the HoS.

“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?”.

Oyo-Ita added that the ministry of finance was working out modalities to pay the N293 billion salaries arrears and allowances being owed civil servants.