Election scare: Okowa makes u-turn, reviews Uduaghan’s 2015 civil service recruitment

Delta state Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has set up committee to review the 2015 civil service recruitment by his predecessor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan in what appears a political strategy to appease those who are seriously angry with his government’s decision to halt the exercise.

This newspaper learnt that the governor has set up a fact finding committee to probe into the exercise in which Uduaghan employed over 3,000 people into the civil service at the last lap of his tenure which was halted by Governor Okowa on assumption of office over alleged irregularities

The decision to revisit the scrapped recruitment exercise which has been a minus to the Okowa’s administration is coming barely 21-days to the Governorship and State House of Assembly election.

A statement signed by the Head of Service, Reginald Bayoko said the state government has set a 9-man Committee to re-examine the 2015 recruitment exercise.

The statement reads: “It is hereby announced for the information of the general public particularly Deltans that in fulfillment of his earlier promise to revisit the 2015 recruitment exercise which was suspended due to alleged irregularities, His Excellency, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State, has approved the commencement of a screening exercise to review the suspended recruitment with a view to lifting the suspension.

“The screening exercise which is to be handled by a 9-man Committee is expected to be concluded within three weeks.

“The action of the government was in deference to public concerns regarding the fate of candidates who might have genuine cases, the continuous exit of staff in the civil service due to retirement and the apparent incremental improvement in the state economy.

“Considering the fact that, the allegation of widespread irregularities in the 2015 recruitment exercise have not been fully debunked, there is therefore the need to screen the affected candidates who participated in the exercise to establish those with genuine cases and ascertain the areas of personnel shortfall, so that those found worthy could be re-absorbed and personnel gap in the civil service bridged.

The Committee has the following terms of reference:

i. to determine the number/nomenclature of advertised posts that were filled;

ii. to screen the candidates, specifying those considered eligible and those not eligible for each of the advertised posts;

iii. to ascertain the number and geographical spread of applicants/candidates involved in the exercise according to their respective local government areas and the genuineness of their certificates/credentials and their local government of origin;

iv. to make appropriate recommendations to government on the number of candidates and categories to be absorbed from those found eligible v. to recommend measures to avoid future occurrence of irregularities in the recruitment process”.