By Ndahi Marawa

MAIDUGURI—Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State yesterday inaugurated a high-powered panel to audit the state workforce as civil service had not been audited in the last two decades.

Gov. Shetima

This was contained in a press statement issued by Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Alhaji Usman Jidda Shuwa, in Maiduguri yesterday.
Shuwa said the 12-member panel was aimed at removing any loopholes or infractions that might impede the implementation of government policies and programmes with direct impact on people’s living conditions in the state.

“The biometric of the state’s workforce will also ensure effective and qualitative workforce and also create employment opportunities for our teeming unemployed youths in Borno state,” Shuwa said.

The terms of reference of the committee, according to Shuwa, include to ascertain the actual number of staff in each of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, verify staff that left the service and ascertain the total number of staff employed into the Civil Service from 2000 to date.

The panel will also determine whether or not such employments in the civil service were properly authorized.

Governor Shettima had said at the presentation of this year’s budget to the state Assembly: “We shall embark on biometric in the civil service to determine the actual number of our workforce, with a view to unlocking employment opportunities for our teeming unemployed graduates; and to engage the youths in useful ventures so that they do not fall prey to the alluring influence of anti-social elements in the society.”

Shuwa chairs the panel, while the Permanent Secretary, Establishment and Service Matters, Garba Alimi, will also serve as the Secretary of the 12-member biometric exercise committee.

Other members include the Head of Service, Yakubu Bukar, Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service Commission, Bukar Adamu, Baba Adam Mustapha, Ambare Kala, Tijjani Shehu, the State Auditor General, Shettima Bukar, Alkali Kaka, Mohammed Mustapha Bulu, Waziri Umara Ngurno and a representative of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.