DELTA WORKERS VERIFICATION EXERCISE: INCITING CHARADE
May 12, 2025 | News
DELTA WORKERS VERIFICATION EXERCISE: INCITING CHARADE
-By Zik Gbemre
DELTA WORKERS VERIFICATION EXERCISE: INCITING CHARADE
Why has Governor Sheriff Oborevwori taken delight in sustaining, in worsening disposition, the shameful misgovernment of successive Delta state government subjecting civil service workers to distressing staff audit that adds no value in sanitising the Delta civil service but serves as an extortion tool for the implementers and sometimes attract tragedies.
It is the height of irresponsible governance to hear near retirement state civil service workers reported dead in another mischievous screening exercise said to have been ordered by Gov Oborevwori.
The ugly pictures of Levels 16 and 17 Delta state civil service workers, many who should be Directors in the service, seen made to dig through a pile of files searching for their staff files supposedly submitted or forwarded to the screening committee by their respective MDAs is so appalling.
In a digital age, only an insincere, pretentious and evil government would subject civil service workers to such physical and emotional torture. This is a government that has done biometric capture for state and LGs workforces. They then went to introduce clocking, all in the name of achieving seamless screening and to eliminate ghost workers.
Beyond using these employee management tools to award contracts to fronts as conduits to loot the state purse, Delta government was never sincere about deploying them. Rather than sanitize the system, the slack deployment of the staff audit tools end up escalating the cover ups and wastage.
If the Delta state government is sincere about the biometrics it did in recent times, they won't compel 'would- soon-be' retirees to travel distances from all corners of the state into Asaba, a most misplaced boundary town state capital, to be subjected to a most disorganized staff audit.
At a time and season where the rising cost of living makes nonsense of all the hyping and cheering to the new minimum wage, who bears the cost for transport, hotel accommodations, feeding and sundry expenses a civil service worker traveling from Burutu to Asaba will incur in the name of verification exercise?
With the biometric capture, a state civil service worker can go through the screening from the comfort of his home. At worst, the Screening Committee should be decentralized or go round the LGs to screen civil servuce workers, especially those field officers outside Asaba.
Does the government have meaningful workplace safety insurance scheme for the workers that they have to risk travelling for screening? We have heard of civil service workers that were involved in motor accidents during such trips or collapsing during the distressful verification exercise.
Today after spending hundreds of millions on clocking machines, the process has been abandoned, leaving the efforts wasted and a return to the old manual ways.
It is laughable to hear one Joy Christabel Sylvester, the Delta State Civil Service PRO's struggle to defend this the indefensible on this racket the commission calls staff verification.
First she said, “This is a private, in-house exercise, which is why it hasn’t been publicized. It concerns only Delta Civil Service Workers and is being handled internally for their interest. That’s why it wasn’t put in the public space.”
We ask Madam PRO, is the business of government private? An exercise that could cause the death of affected workers not a public concern, knowing virtually all those affected are breadwinners and any misfortune to one civil service worker could affect his family and relatives.These are the types of persons Delta state government engage to run government activities.
Asked why senior officers were being made to individually search for their files at the Office of the Head of Service, she says “This has always been the procedure, even when we go for screenings at the HoS, we go through the same system."
For her, it must be business as usual, even when the system is ruinous. Of course she confirmed the screening was ordered by Gov Oborevwori, to monitor integrity of the commission’s workforce.
“We need to see our employees physically. If someone doesn’t show up when invited, it indicates they may no longer be in service,” she emphasized.
What stupidity? So if a staff is incapacitated by illness or sundry challenges and unable to come within the period, he is not longer in service. Just like that.
“Files are expected to come from offices where the officers (affected) are posted. If they are missing, the affected individuals should contact their departments to ensure the files are forwarded to the Commission", she added.
Again, what insensitivity. These are workers who have gone through this repeated verification all through their employment. Then their records have been captured in biometrics, yet they should take responsibilities for files they have submitted now missing from their administrative shelves of the MDAs they are working.
All they needed do is to present copies of the relevant required documents which they can even scan and send and the Verification Committee to confirm from their digital records. Those with discrepancies can then be invited for physical verification.
We are not unaware of the burden of irregularities - jobs for sale, fake credentials, including age and certificate forgery, ghost workers, dead workers receiving salaries, promotion rackets and sundry sharp practices rampant in the civil service which constitute the excuses for the frequent screening.
What we are saying is these irregularities are induced by same insensitive management of the Civil Service Commission that delights in carrying out the inhuman verifications, which are actually meant to cover up their misconducts and extortion of money from perceived defaulters.
The irregularities we mentioned can't bedevil the system if the Governor and Head of Service are not allowing it. The administrative and account units of the Service are the ones used to perpetrate this irregularities. These irregularities are allowed in exchange for bribe to managers of the Service.
How is it possible for a person who was recruited into the Service to have the temerity to redeclare different dates of birth repeatedly to push forward his retirement if the leadership of the Service does not allow and help smuggle the falsified ages into his file?
Not long ago, the State Commissioner of Health, Dr Gabriel Onojaeme announced the discovery of over 200 health workers who remain on the government payroll while already relocated for hard currency jobs abroad. The discovery was mainly from the moribund Oghara Teaching Hospital, just one of the institutions under the ministry.
The youthful commissioner would further announced that the ghost workers found on the payroll were removed and that was it. We did remind him that removing ghost workers earning full salaries while leaving abroad was not enough to deter those responsible from further carrying out the fraud.
We said the affected 'japa' staff could not be receiving the free money with the relevant ministry's staff, especially the admin and accounts, payroll officers aiding and abetting it, for a share of the loot.
Our conclusion was that the ghost workers receiving salaries from the ministry while working abroad were not the issue. That until the payroll officers and admin managers covering up for them were identified and sanctioned, they will smuggle in other names to replace those removed.
We added that those responsible for the payroll fraud should be published and other institutions in the ministry subjected to staff audit. Today, no further action has been heard taken against the culprits and those workers aiding the fraud.
The bottom line is the state civil service is choked with payroll fraud and subjecting those near retirement to fraudulent everyday verification after helping them to falsify age to push forward their retirement is a conspiracy of coverup.
In the end, the defaulters in this round of verification who are ready to bribe would be allowed to remain in the service while those with genuine credentials could be retired unjustly for their missing files for no fault of theirs.
Must governance on all fronts be made an expensive joke for few persons profiteering at the expense of the majority alienated populace?
Zik Gbemre
May 12,2025
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
DELTA WORKERS VERIFICATION EXERCISE: INCITING CHARADE
Why has Governor Sheriff Oborevwori taken delight in sustaining, in worsening disposition, the shameful misgovernment of successive Delta state government subjecting civil service workers to distressing staff audit that adds no value in sanitising the Delta civil service but serves as an extortion tool for the implementers and sometimes attract tragedies.
It is the height of irresponsible governance to hear near retirement state civil service workers reported dead in another mischievous screening exercise said to have been ordered by Gov Oborevwori.
The ugly pictures of Levels 16 and 17 Delta state civil service workers, many who should be Directors in the service, seen made to dig through a pile of files searching for their staff files supposedly submitted or forwarded to the screening committee by their respective MDAs is so appalling.
In a digital age, only an insincere, pretentious and evil government would subject civil service workers to such physical and emotional torture. This is a government that has done biometric capture for state and LGs workforces. They then went to introduce clocking, all in the name of achieving seamless screening and to eliminate ghost workers.
Beyond using these employee management tools to award contracts to fronts as conduits to loot the state purse, Delta government was never sincere about deploying them. Rather than sanitize the system, the slack deployment of the staff audit tools end up escalating the cover ups and wastage.
If the Delta state government is sincere about the biometrics it did in recent times, they won't compel 'would- soon-be' retirees to travel distances from all corners of the state into Asaba, a most misplaced boundary town state capital, to be subjected to a most disorganized staff audit.
At a time and season where the rising cost of living makes nonsense of all the hyping and cheering to the new minimum wage, who bears the cost for transport, hotel accommodations, feeding and sundry expenses a civil service worker traveling from Burutu to Asaba will incur in the name of verification exercise?
With the biometric capture, a state civil service worker can go through the screening from the comfort of his home. At worst, the Screening Committee should be decentralized or go round the LGs to screen civil servuce workers, especially those field officers outside Asaba.
Does the government have meaningful workplace safety insurance scheme for the workers that they have to risk travelling for screening? We have heard of civil service workers that were involved in motor accidents during such trips or collapsing during the distressful verification exercise.
Today after spending hundreds of millions on clocking machines, the process has been abandoned, leaving the efforts wasted and a return to the old manual ways.
It is laughable to hear one Joy Christabel Sylvester, the Delta State Civil Service PRO's struggle to defend this the indefensible on this racket the commission calls staff verification.
First she said, “This is a private, in-house exercise, which is why it hasn’t been publicized. It concerns only Delta Civil Service Workers and is being handled internally for their interest. That’s why it wasn’t put in the public space.”
We ask Madam PRO, is the business of government private? An exercise that could cause the death of affected workers not a public concern, knowing virtually all those affected are breadwinners and any misfortune to one civil service worker could affect his family and relatives.These are the types of persons Delta state government engage to run government activities.
Asked why senior officers were being made to individually search for their files at the Office of the Head of Service, she says “This has always been the procedure, even when we go for screenings at the HoS, we go through the same system."
For her, it must be business as usual, even when the system is ruinous. Of course she confirmed the screening was ordered by Gov Oborevwori, to monitor integrity of the commission’s workforce.
“We need to see our employees physically. If someone doesn’t show up when invited, it indicates they may no longer be in service,” she emphasized.
What stupidity? So if a staff is incapacitated by illness or sundry challenges and unable to come within the period, he is not longer in service. Just like that.
“Files are expected to come from offices where the officers (affected) are posted. If they are missing, the affected individuals should contact their departments to ensure the files are forwarded to the Commission", she added.
Again, what insensitivity. These are workers who have gone through this repeated verification all through their employment. Then their records have been captured in biometrics, yet they should take responsibilities for files they have submitted now missing from their administrative shelves of the MDAs they are working.
All they needed do is to present copies of the relevant required documents which they can even scan and send and the Verification Committee to confirm from their digital records. Those with discrepancies can then be invited for physical verification.
We are not unaware of the burden of irregularities - jobs for sale, fake credentials, including age and certificate forgery, ghost workers, dead workers receiving salaries, promotion rackets and sundry sharp practices rampant in the civil service which constitute the excuses for the frequent screening.
What we are saying is these irregularities are induced by same insensitive management of the Civil Service Commission that delights in carrying out the inhuman verifications, which are actually meant to cover up their misconducts and extortion of money from perceived defaulters.
The irregularities we mentioned can't bedevil the system if the Governor and Head of Service are not allowing it. The administrative and account units of the Service are the ones used to perpetrate this irregularities. These irregularities are allowed in exchange for bribe to managers of the Service.
How is it possible for a person who was recruited into the Service to have the temerity to redeclare different dates of birth repeatedly to push forward his retirement if the leadership of the Service does not allow and help smuggle the falsified ages into his file?
Not long ago, the State Commissioner of Health, Dr Gabriel Onojaeme announced the discovery of over 200 health workers who remain on the government payroll while already relocated for hard currency jobs abroad. The discovery was mainly from the moribund Oghara Teaching Hospital, just one of the institutions under the ministry.
The youthful commissioner would further announced that the ghost workers found on the payroll were removed and that was it. We did remind him that removing ghost workers earning full salaries while leaving abroad was not enough to deter those responsible from further carrying out the fraud.
We said the affected 'japa' staff could not be receiving the free money with the relevant ministry's staff, especially the admin and accounts, payroll officers aiding and abetting it, for a share of the loot.
Our conclusion was that the ghost workers receiving salaries from the ministry while working abroad were not the issue. That until the payroll officers and admin managers covering up for them were identified and sanctioned, they will smuggle in other names to replace those removed.
We added that those responsible for the payroll fraud should be published and other institutions in the ministry subjected to staff audit. Today, no further action has been heard taken against the culprits and those workers aiding the fraud.
The bottom line is the state civil service is choked with payroll fraud and subjecting those near retirement to fraudulent everyday verification after helping them to falsify age to push forward their retirement is a conspiracy of coverup.
In the end, the defaulters in this round of verification who are ready to bribe would be allowed to remain in the service while those with genuine credentials could be retired unjustly for their missing files for no fault of theirs.
Must governance on all fronts be made an expensive joke for few persons profiteering at the expense of the majority alienated populace?
Zik Gbemre
May 12,2025
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes