BY SUNDAY EGEDE

Only the casual workers who were engaged before May 29, 2007 by the state government owned Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been considered for the regularization of appointment approved by the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.

This was disclosed by the Delta State Head of Service (HOS), Sir. Okey Ofili in an exclusive interview with The POINTER at his office in Asaba while speaking on the criteria that were adopted by the state government in arriving at the 1,072 names of casual workers which was recently approved by Governor Uduaghan.

According to him, the committee vested with the responsibility of identifying the casual staff that falls within the period under reference, requested for returns from the MDAs indicating the names of their casual staff and the date of their engagement.

He disclosed that it was from the list that was given to the committee by the MDAs that “we drew the line for anybody who was employed after May 29, 2007 and they were not considered at all”.

As much as possible, the HOS said, we tried to limit the casual workers that were considered for the regularization exercise to junior staff such as cleaners, messengers and drivers, adding that the financial involvement and the qualifications of the persons concerned (casual workers) were, also, looked at by the state government.

Ofili stated that those whose qualifications were not considered before they were employed by the MDAs were not considered for the regularization exercise even if they fall within the period under reference.

“To a large extent, we did not include persons who have degrees (graduates) because they were outside the scope (category of staff) that we considered which is junior staff”, he said, adding “we, also, take into account, the various vacancies in the MDAs for this cadre of staff (junior staff).

Most importantly, the HOS said, we tried to keep to the vacancies provisions in the various MDAs and to a large extent, a number of staff have now been approved for the regularization of their appointment by the state government.

While saying that the absorption of the casual workers into the mainstream of the state public service takes effect from April 30, 2013 when the governor gave the approval, Ofili said “we are going to comply with the mode of employment in various services”.

He disclosed that the state government would henceforth, not tolerate actualisation of staff in its public service, adding that anybody working in the state public service and was not appointed by the appropriate authorities (the Civil Service Commission for civil servants and the various boards of government owned parastatals) should never consider himself a staff whether a permanent staff, a temporary staff or a casual staff.

Such persons, according to the HOS, should not expect any obligation from the state government to regularize their appointment if they do not get such appointment appropriately, pointing out that “it would be wrong for any ministry to continue to keep this cadre of staff” just as he said that any appointment into the civil service must follow due procedure.