By Helen Adejo
The Benue State Government is to partner the Benue State University Consultancy Services to train civil servants in the state to improve productivity.
The state Head of Service, Dr Moses Agbogbo Ode stated this, recently in his office while playing host to the Managing Director of the Benue State University Consultancy Service who visited him.
According to a statement by the information officer, office of Head of Service, Doshima Abuul, the HoS acknowledged the importance of training and building staff capacity, pointing out that government will embrace the initiative to impact the requisite skills and acknowledge needed to enhance staff performance and increase their productivity.
He emphasized that the Alia administration is not relenting in its efforts to see that the civil service is restructured and repositioned, stressing the need to constantly train and retrain officers to be abreast with the present advanced age and promised to key into the programmes organized by the Benue State University consultancy services to improve staff efficiency and productivity.
Earlier, the Managing Director, Benue State University Consultancy Services Limited, Dr. Iortyom Mark Varem, intimated the Head of Service on their programmes which are run in collaboration with the office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Benue State and St. Dominic College of Asia, Philippines in organizing a public speaking master class with the theme, “Effective communication and leadership in government: Inspiring public trust and mobilizing change for the Benue of our dreams”.
Dr. Varem also highlighted some of the training programmes to include: Capacity training, general administrative training and programming /ICT training to help develop ideas and skills that will ultimately contribute to the enhancement and growth of the state work force.
Similarly, the state Head of Service, Dr. Agbogbo Ode has expressed government’s willingness to partner with retired Permanent Secretaries in the state to return the lost glory of the service.
Dr. Ode stated this recently when forum of retired Permanent Secretaries, Benue State chapter paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
The Head of Service, who expressed the desire of the present administration to have a review of the state public service rules emphasized that their inputs will be required considering their wealth of experience to serve as resource persons to train and retrain civil servants to bring back the glory of the service.
He pointed out that, Governor Hyacinth Alia has identified civil service as key system towards having a new Benue and he is passionate to see that Benue civil service is sanitised and repositioned for the overall development of the state.
Earlier, leader of the delegation and chairman of the forum of retired Permanent Secretaries, Mr Hyacinth Kyaagba intimated the Head of Service of their challenges of unpaid arrears of pension and sacking of some permanent secretaries by the immediate past administration, which lead them to approaching the Industrial Court for over a year and the judgement was passed in their favour in May 2023 as at the time the present administration came on board.
Mr. Kyaagba also appealed that a harmonised salary structure for retired Permanent Secretaries be introduced, pointing out that some retired Permanent Secretaries are paid more than others from a computation from office of the state Auditor General which computes some with allowances and others been underpaid.
He stated that the service is in poor shape and merit is not been recognized, pointing out that the way to bring sanity into the system is to ensure that merit is restored in the state civil service.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Service Welfare, Office of the Head of Service, Mr.Terna Ayu, applauded the group for their efforts in availing themselves to serve as a point of reference to upgrade the younger staff to improve and advance the cause in serving the state.
