Leadership of the Nigeria Civil Service Union at the Federal Capital Territory has called on the Federal Government to cut the cost of governance in the country both at the federal and state levels to safe the country from avoidable borrowing.
This was part of the highlights of a communique issued at the end of the union’s meeting held recently in Abuja.
The communique posited that “in view of the dwindling resources, the Union regretted that hundreds of millions of Naira are being used in maintaining and paying political office holders while a greater percentage of Youth are unemployed and facing abject poverty.
READ ALSO: Prepare For More Floods, FG Warns Nigerians
“The meeting therefore urged government at all levels to cut down the size of political appointees in order to save resources to meet up with other developmental programmes”
The communique which was signed by the Chairman, Federal Council, Comrade Timothy Odebunmi and the Council’s Secretary, Comrade Daniel Otakpo, expressed worry over the level of high rate poverty, rise in prices of food items and its attendant effects on insecurity, rising crime rate, corruption, kidnapping, cultism, herdsmen/farmers clashes, banditry and other social vices despite efforts by security agencies against these unfortunate incidences.
The union therefore counseled the Federal Government to mitigate these torrendous security milliew by putting up measures that will address the level of poverty and unemployment as a guarantee for social security and peaceful co-existence in the country.
READ ALSO: Ogun LG Election: PDP Refutes Boycott Claim, Says ‘We’re Still In The Race
On job efficiency and effectiveness in the public service, the union advocated good working environment which according to it can only come to fruition if relevant working materials are provided and the urgent renovation of Federal Secretariat.
The union also expressed worry over shortage of working materials in some ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) this has slowed down the rate of output by Workers in different MDAs
The union therefore suggested a redouble efforts and advised some Head of Departments to follow financial guidelines and regulations to prevent diversion of funds for personal aggrandizement serving as salary supplement which it said is antithetical to the public service philosophy.
Other highlights of the communique include a call to deploy adequate fund for education and training programmes which has declined in recent time.
READ ALSO: 2023 Presidency: Tinubu’ll Be Worse Than Buhari, Runs Lagos Like Pig Farm – Rights Activist
On need for adequate training in the public service, the union admonished both federal and state governments to urgently adapt a training package for all cadres in the public service inorder to equip officers and personnel with requisite skills and competence in order to reposition the industry to be responsive, efficience and transparence.