By John Mkom
Jalingo – The permanent secretary Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Taraba state Alhaji Bello Yero has asked the civil servants in Taraba state to take part in the ongoing screening of civil servants in the state as this will bring about proper records of staff straight and due promotions.

Bello disclosed this to Vanguard at the Taraba state secretariat while starring at a long queue at the civil service screening on Friday.

He said the move by Taraba state government to ascertain the number of civil servants through the ongoing screening was a welcome development that can help cut down the cost and improve governance.

Yero also praised governor Darius Ishaku’ courage in organising the screening.

He stated that the issue of ghost workers has been a worrisome problem that hindered the accurate record and proper accountability in the state civil service.

“Since Taraba was created out of Gongola state, there has been no lift on employment embargo, if you look properly, good number of civil servants died, good number of civil servants have retired and some transferred their services to the federal government but the number of staff in the state keep getting higher and higher”

“The salary wages also keep increasing higher therefore one wonder how it is happening, it is our hope that the committee will do their job diligently and come up with a report that can cut down the unnecessary cost of the state salary wages such wasted resources can be used on good projects” Yero stated.

Monitoring the screening Vanguard discovered that there was a massive turn out of civil servants across the ministries, boards and parastaters.

It would be recalled that the governor of Taraba state Darius Ishaku on assumption of office two months back has constituted a screening committee to ascertain the number of civil servants in the state to block payment of ghost workers and identify due promotions and timely retirement of civil servants in Taraba state.