Petrol price hike: No plan to reduce work days – FG

The federal government has no plan to reduce work days over the hike in the price of petrol caused by the removal of petrol subsidy, the Head of the Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has said.

She said this in Abuja Tuesday during a parley with media executives as part of activities marking the 2023 Civil Service Week themed ‘Digitalisation of Work Processes in the Public Service: A Gateway to Efficient Resource Utilization and National Development’.

She said the present administration was assiduously working on palliatives that would sustain civil servants and all Nigerians, hence no cause for alarm or work days’ reduction.

According to her, part of the measures is to purchase mass transit buses that will run on gas, with some buses already being converted from diesel to gas-powered vehicles.

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She also said workers’ salaries were being reviewed for the increment to also cushion the impact of the petrol subsidy removal.

“We don’t have any plans to reduce working days for civil servants in view of the hike in PMS and cost of transportation. However, a committee has been set up to look into this. “The committee is currently working on getting gas-powered buses to convey civil servants to and fro. We’re also working on the conversion of some vehicles from PMS into gas. Also, the minimum wage is also being reviewed,” Yemi-Esan said.

She also said the ongoing verification exercise for civil servants across the MDAs had captured 69,854 officers across the six geopolitical zones.

She said the verification exercise under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Personnel Information System was to kick out ghost workers and retain credibly employed civil servants.

She revealed that the verification exercise had led to the detection of 1,618 fake or illegal employment letters and the subsequent suspension of the officers.

She also said her office was working towards full digitlisation and open government across MDAs.

She said her office was poised to achieve a minimum of 50 per cent functional official email addresses created in the Service by 2025; a minimum of 40 percent automation of ministries’ work processes, a minimum of 60 per cent access to government’s services online and the provision of clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply to guarantee the optimalisation of the digitalisation policy.