Lagos State Civil Servants have been promised a new deal of salary structure and leave bonus arrangement most suitable to the generality of the workers if the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC retains the coming governorship elections.
Akinwunmi Ambode, the APC governorship candidate in the state said this at an interactive session with Permanent Secretaries, Directors and hundreds of civil servants in the state over the weekend.
He promised to meet with the civil servants on quarterly basis with a design to create a new era that would benefit the workforce if elected as governor of the state on April 11.
Ambode was up until his voluntarily retirement in 2012 the Accountant General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance in the Lagos civil service.
The governorship candidate, who told his audience at the Adeyemi Bero hall at the state secretariat, Alausa, that his emergence has broken the jinx and barrier that civil servants could only become Permanent Secretary or Director, told the workers that a new deal, which would positively affect their welfare and progress, was in the offing.
“Better days are coming. My word is my bond. We will put a lot of attention on processes and procedures in order to strengthen the public service structure in Lagos State. I will engage with union leaders and civil servants on a quarterly basis, because I believe strongly that stakeholders’ needs should guide our policies. Public sector reforms are dynamic. What is good today may require a review tomorrow.
“I will pay greater attention to training and capacity building. Every civil servant in our state must have the opportunity to develop him or herself further. There is nothing that says we can’t send civil servants to Harvard University. This is the only way civil servants can be good to the system and be useful to themselves after retirement,” Ambode stated.
Ambode also made clarifications on the issue of consolidated salary structure that has created some apprehension among the state’s civil servants. “I think people were only interested in the expected increase in their monthly salary but did not bother to ask for the details as to how it would impact on their leave bonuses.
“If the decision was taken by Ambode as being erroneously peddled in some quarters, at least my successor, the new Accountant General, would have reversed it. But the truth is that the government acceded to what the workers demanded through the union. There has been some challenge in communication about this issue. Some people are politicizing it because they do not want one of you to be governor.
“As a civil servant, I was trained not to talk anyhow. But it is important to clarify these issues. I assure you that things will change. Your leave bonus has always been paid and will continue to be paid. Issues of salary reviews will also be looked into. Cars and housing loans may not necessarily go round, but we will review it and ensure less bureaucracy for those who qualify to access them,” he said.
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