Bayelsa Plans Low Cost Houses For Civil Servants

In a bid to improve the living conditions of civil servants, Bayelsa State government has disclosed its intention to build low cost houses for them. It has directed the relevant ministry to acquire 100 hectares of land for that purpose.Governor Seriake Dickson, who announced the plan in Yenagoa at a three-day retreat on strategic management for permanent secretaries in the state, said the development was part of the welfare package for civil servants.

The retreat is organised by the state government in collaboration with the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON).Dickson said the project would commence at Agbura in the next two months just as another housing scheme for senior civil servants would be located opposite the five-star hotel in the state capital.

The governor also assured of government intention to add four more buses to the existing fleet of six for the mass transport scheme for civil servants, saying it will take off at the end of the month.He said, “The reforms being undertaken in the civil service were geared towards enhancing the productivity and professionalism of the workforce as the civil service is the instrumentality through which government policies and programmes are implemented”.

He described as wrong and criminal the development where some civil servants without the requisite medical qualifications were benefiting from the medical and health workers salary scale.

Dickson also directed the Ministry of Finance to work in conjunction with the Head of Service and Treasury Department to expunge the names of such medical workers from the special salary scale with effect from this month.In his words, “There is an unhealthy practice in this state.

There are people who are not entitled to earn the medical and health workers’ allowance. Entitlement depends on qualification and not membership of a union. We are working together to lay a foundation of a new Bayelsa State and if we do not do so, Bayelsa will self-destruct.

We must not allow this illegality and impunity to continue.”On the need for workers to pay appropriate taxes in conformity with the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) of the Federal Government, Dickson said government would soon evolve a tax policy for the private sector in the state to enable all stakeholders to participate in the development of the state. 

SAMUEL ESE, Yenagoa
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