Ayade approves recruitment into civil service

Cross River State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade, has approved the recruitment of workers into the state civil service to replace the ageing workforce.

The Head of Service, Timothy Akwaji, disclosed this at the maiden meeting with Permanent Secretaries in his office.

He said, “Approval for the recruitment of staff was to cushion the effect of the diminishing manpower occasioned by the mass retirement from the State Civil Service in 2023.”

He said the impending mass retirement from the State Civil Service prompted the need for Permanent Secretaries to mentor their subordinates.

The mentorship is also to position the civil servants for greater responsibilities in the state service.

He noted that “most of the workers will be exiting the service having completed 35 years in service and this may create a bureaucratic vacuum if there is no mentoring of those that may be left behind to keep the service running.”

He further called on the Permanent Secretaries to change the narrative and enforce disciplinary measures where necessary to ensure optimal service delivery.

Responding, some of the Permanent Secretaries commended the Head of Service for the meeting which they described as “a show of oneness” and a demonstration of his readiness to work with them.

They decried the absence of Commissioners as well as Permanent Secretaries in key ministries and appealed to the Head of Service to redeem the situation.

The meeting climaxed with the election of a new exco for the College of Permanent Secretaries.

Permanent Secretary GAO/SSG, Dr Innocent Eteng, emerged as the new Provost of the College, Mr Enene Eke as Registrar, Mrs Aniedi Ekpenyong – Bursar, and Sir Dennis Utang as Public Relations Officer

Earlier, the Head of Service had met with Directors in the State Civil Service where he charged them to be proactive by creating innovations that will ‘recalibrate and rejig’ the service.

He charged them to reconstitute Senior and Junior staff management committees as this would go a long way to enforce discipline in the different MDAs.