By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa—Less than one week after his re-election, Bayelsa State governor,  Mr Seriake Dickson, has ordered all political appointees in his administration to prepare their hand-over notes in preparation for the transition to a second tenure.

Meantime, the governor has also approved the setting up of three committees, State Establishment, Pensions and Local Government Committees, to ascertain the actual number of staff in the civil service, local government and pensioners, with a view to pruning down the wage bill of the state government.

The directive, issued after a meeting with political appointees in a circular to state Commissioners and Special Aides, directed that the hand over notes should be made ready on or before January 15, 2016.

Investigation showed that while many of the state commissioners have complied with the governor’s directive, others including Senior Special Advisers, Special Advisers and other new appointees, are worried over their status as aides of the governor.

In effect, a source close to the government said, “There is no political appointee in the state and this will save the state government about N400 milion which is the monthly wage bill of political appointees.”

A commissioner who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the development saying, “The report on the directive is true. We were asked to prepare our hand-over notes in preparation for the transition.”

Meanwhile, the governor has approved the setting up of three committees, State Establishment; Pensions; and Local Government Committees to ascertain the actual number of staff in the civil service, local government and pensioners, with a view to pruning down the wage bill of the state government.

In a government special announcement, the state government set up an establishment committee with Chief Francis Doukpola as Chairman with 13 other members to review the actual staff number in 2007 and related wage bills and to reconcile the movement of increase or decrease of staff number and wage bills from then till now.