Kano State Government took decisive action on Friday, dismissing a total of 3,234 civil servants deemed ineligible for recruitment into the state civil service. This move follows a comprehensive verification exercise conducted by the state government.
The Secretary to the State Government, Abdullahi Bichi, revealed that the dismissals were a result of the verification process, which uncovered various irregularities.
The sacked workers were found to be underage, while others were discovered to have used forged credentials to secure positions on the state government’s payroll.
The controversy surrounding these dismissals traces back to June when Governor Abba Yusuf suspended over 10,000 workers employed during the final days of the previous administration led by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
Governor Yusuf argued that these workers were unlawfully hired, prompting the suspension of their salaries pending an investigation into the legitimacy of their recruitment.
On Friday, Mr Bichi, at a press conference, said that, following the verification exercise, some of the workers were found to be underage, while others were caught using forged credentials to be on the state government’s payroll, Tribune Newspaper reported.
“A total of 9,332 staff (members) were found eligible by the committee that screened the 12,566 recruited by the previous administration of former governor Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
“It could be recalled that at the inception of this administration, it had cause to direct for the suspension of the payment of the salaries of certain employees from the Civil Service of the State.
“Most of those employed did not undergo screening and recruitment interviews as expected by the service regulations; several students in their active study years were also found to be employed, including students of junior secondary schools, senior secondary schools, and some in their early stages of tertiary education,” the newspaper quoted the official saying.
The decision to dismiss these civil servants was driven by concerns over the extensive and irregular mass employment that occurred during the last administration.
“To achieve this objective, a 22-member technical committee of competent and experienced serving and retired technical servants was constituted to screen and verify the entire process leading to the recruitment exercise.
“On the grounds of this necessity, all those who were wrongly employed had their salaries stopped pending a formal assessment of their records and processes of employment.
“The committee, given the number of those employed, broke into three panels to handle the screening of the 12,566 as against the 10,800 earlier reported.
“A number of those employed were found to have suspicious or forged certificates, while many non-indigenes were employed despite a large number of qualified unemployed indigenes roaming our streets.
“The employment did not take into consideration the actual manpower needs of the respective MDAs but was influenced by the desire to tie down the new administration financially.
“That those employed were wrongly placed through deployment to non-career posts or the calling of their respective qualifications;
“That there were cases where officers with higher qualifications attracting senior cadre were employed on the junior cadre of the service, contrary to the needs of the MDAs and approval granted for such employments,” the official said.
In light of these revelations, the salaries of those wrongly employed have been suspended, pending a formal assessment of their records and employment processes.
The move reflects the government’s commitment to rectifying the anomalies in the recruitment system and ensuring a more transparent and compliant civil service.
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