1. End-of-Year Bonus: Dr Olusegun Mimiko, for the first time in history, introduced an end-of-year-bonus for all civil servants in Ondo State, which in tandem with the festive season, that is celebrated by all at such periods, spices the purse of workers. The payment of the largesse, which is 50% of monthly basic salary (25% was paid in 2012 but it remains a privilege not a right of the workers though), started in the same year that Dr Mimiko took oath of office in 2009 and has been sustained till date. It is instructive to note that this is also becoming the benchmark in neighboring states.

2. Settlement of Outstanding Pensions & Gratuities of Local Governments Including Primary School: Over 1 billion Naira was approved by Mr Governor to defray the long standing retirement benefits and pension entitlements of LG workers and primary school teachers. This helped in no small measure to lessen the monthly effort of local governments to pay off the debts, which had no end in sight. It also put an end to the endless wait of the veterans who were at times subjected to excruciating queues that was inimical to their health.

3. Salary Adjustment, Salary Relativity & Minimum Wage Payment: In a space of 2 years, the Dr Olusegun Mimiko administration for one reason or the other improved on the income of Ondo State serving workers. It all started with Salary Adjustment, which was to correct the short changing in monthly salaries of workers carried over from the last administration, bringing the State’s civil servants at par with their colleagues in neighbouring states. Thereafter came the Salary Relativity, which was based on a Federal Government’s circular aimed at bridging the gap between the take-home of Permanent Secretary and Directors on GL 16 and down the wage ladder. And, to cap it all, the Governor also consented and assented to a minimum wage of N22,000, making Ondo State the first State to actually implement what was a Bill passed by the National Assembly and signed into Law by Mr President.

4. Quantum Leap of the Minimum Wage Paid by Ondo State: To date the quantum leap of the minimum wage paid by Ondo State is the highest in the whole of Nigeria. This meant that the minimum wage, which Mimiko inherited at N10,500 was jerked up by over 104%.

5. Direct and Indirect Effect of the Mother & Child Hospital and Abiye Innovations for Pregnant Women: The Mother & Child Hospital was constructed purposely to stem the tide in the alarming rate of maternal and infant mortality. Services and drugs are also free, even when Cesarean Section is involved. In tandem with this is the Abiye programme that reached out to all pregnant women, with a provision of customized and networked phones and lines for such women to access consultancy services from State medical personnel and, should complications arise, such pregnant women would be attended to wherever they are and whatever time of the day by professionals at no cost. These facilities have received accolades from no less than the UNICEF and World Bank, urging other African nations to follow suit. By virtue of the fact that Dr Olusegun Mimiko meant this programme for all and sundry, including non-Ondo State indigenes, civil servants have benefitted largely and highly from the synergy availed by the MCH & Abiye programme.

6. Free Shuttle for Primary & Secondary Schools Students: This is another egalitarian largesse from the Mimiko administration that, directly or indirectly, civil servants who are parents of students in either private or public secondary schools have benefitted immensely in that these parents do not have to cough out any amount for the commuting of their wards to and from their schools everyday as there are buses available at designated and newly constructed bus stops in the rush hour of the morning and after closing hours in the afternoon to freight the children free of charge.

7. Vehicle Loans: Gone are the days, when in the immediate past administration, workers obtained car loans at between 18-22% compound interest rates. The administration of Dr Olusegun Mimiko has rescinded that cut throat decision to give out and make available vehicle loans to workers at a friendly simple interest rate of around 6% for civil servants.

8. Housing Loans: For long, the Housing Board at the Ministry of Lands & Housing, an ODSG organ for assisting workers with loans for housing construction has been comatose. However, with the advent of the Dr Mimiko administration, things have changed. The government has pumped money into the Board for the purpose of giving out soft loans up to N1m to civil servants at rock bottom interest rate of 5%.

9. Training Programmes: The ODSG has also intensified the capacity building of its workforce, with overhauled training programmes within and outside the country. Key among this training programme is the innovative Compuserve, which is aimed at enhancing the output of workers by pointing them in the way of a paradigm shift. It is also not uncommon to see the ODSG partnering with World Bank-assisted programmes to package useful training for its workers for the purpose of motivating and stimulating their unawaken abilities for the delivery of governance.

10. Faster Promotion of Civil Servants: There is no denying the fact that civil servants who are older in the system will have painful memories of how promotions used to be delayed, that is, if it eventually came in the 80s and 90s. Workers have had to wait for even over 3 years to get their rightfully deserved promotions and it is not as if the lost years will even be restored unto them nominally or financially. Up till the last administration, workers never got their promotion letters in the years they were due for promotions. The earliest time to lay hands on promotion letters was the following year of the due date of the promotion while there is never a make-up for the lost financial remunerations. As it were, there has been vast improvement in this sphere such that all civil servants who are due for promotion this year have already obtained their letter, a situation that is unprecedented.

11. Improved Condition of Work Environment: Most offices where civil servants work have undergone renovation to improve the work environment of workers. Since government workers spend most of the effective daytime hours in the office, it is expected that the office should boast of minimum comfort. This, the Mimiko-led administration has paid attention to with renovation of office, not least in the State Secretariat where the bulk of civil servants are located. Apart from the internal comforts availed by better and esteem-boosting furniture and air conditioners, the evidence of the scenic beauty of the view in the office ambience is also incontrovertible.

12. Opportunity to Attain the Peak of Career: The peak of a civil servant’s career is the office of a permanent secretary. But in the past, the office of a permanent secretary has been exclusively reserved for a selected few especially those in the admin cadre. When Dr Mimiko took the reins of office, he appointed new permanent secretaries, which unconventionally included medical doctors to man offices outside the Ministry of Health as well as Pharmacist, an Architect, Education Officers etc This had never happened before in the civil service. The message clearly sent was that every civil servant regardless of cadre has hope, not to just end as a director but to actually make it to the post of the permanent secretary. Furthermore, the Labour Party government has more permanent secretaries at any one time than any other administration. In teaching service, even teachers are now regularly appointed tutor-generals.