There are over 100 different salary structures in the federal civil service alone, some retired permanent secretaries told Daily Trust Friday in Abuja.
While they were unanimous in asking the federal government to summon political wills to tackle the problems in civil service, they however differed on the modalities to implement the proposed salary and minimum wage reviews proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The trio spoken to in different interviews however pleaded not to be named, citing different reasons for their anonymity.
“We have too many salary structures in the federal civil service with the NNPC, and its subsidiaries, for example, having over a dozen different salary structures and being paid by the same government,” one of the permanent secretaries said.
According to him, the present federal workforce is too bogus and is one of the reasons for the inefficiency in the nation’s work force.
“Even less than half of the present work force can do better than what we are having now,” he said.
Another was of the stance that the government must be decisive, but carry all the stakeholders along in the proposed review.
“Even while the President have not said the reviews would be downward, it is clear to all that this would be a downward review. My concern here is, to cite a popular example, the case of the medical doctors with the pharmacists, earning different salary structures in the same field. There are likely going to be industrial crisis, but this can be managed if the government can show commitment and make the processes transparent,” he said.
Another of the permanent secretaries said the disparity between a permanent secretary and a director, which is just a step is so much that while a permanent secretary continue to enjoy his pecks for life, till death, the package of a director, especially when the pension is considered is nothing to write home about.
He said, “So there must be serious nationwide actions. I cannot imagine the states that are failing to meet up the N18, 000 minimum wage, despite the federal government interventions, to be able to meet up N30, 000 or any other added figure.”
