Gombe State governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, said the downsizing of the ministries he inherited from 27 to 21 has helped in reducing the cost of governance and duplication of responsibilities.
The governor stated this yesterday while swearing in 12 new permanent secretaries and newly appointed special advisers at the Government House in Gombe.
He said the idea of pruning the number of ministries was part of his administration’s plans to restructure the civil service and ensure prudence in the governance of the state.
Yahaya lamented that his administration inherited a moribund and dysfunctional civil service that had a bloated structure and lacked the will to perform.
“But we came up with reforms such as the implementation of the N30, 000 national minimum wage, regular payments of salaries and reducing the backlog of gratuities to motivate workers.
“There was also palpable fear for the future as entitlements upon retirement such as gratuity were not forthcoming. A whopping sum of over N21 billion has remained unpaid to both the state and local government council retirees,” he said.
He said his administration was able to settle 2014 and 2015 outstanding gratuities totalling N3.2 billion.
“Efforts are underway to settle the 2016 outstanding gratuity before the end of the year 2022. In addition, we intend to pay the 2017 balances by the first quarter of 2023,” he added.
