The Imo State government has began the redeployment of civil servants to communities to serve in the Community Government Councils (CGC).

Gov. Rochas Okorocha announced this on Thursday in Owerri during a meeting with members of the State Executive Council and heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state.

He explained that the affected workers would constitute the administrative wing of the community government.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the redeployment is at the heels of mixed reactions in the state over the inclusion of traditional rulers as members of the proposed community government council.

The Imo Assembly last week organised a public hearing on the proposed bill for the local administration where the inclusion of the royal fathers dominated presentations made.

The governor said that under the new arrangement, each of the 27 Local Government Areas would retain 80 staff while Government House, Owerri, would have only 100 members of staff.

He said other ministries and agencies would also down-size in line with the decentralisation programme.

Okorocha said that most government activities would be community-based which underscored the need for adequate manpower at the grassroots to ensure accelerated rural development.

The governor added that the new arrangement was not aimed at merely reducing workforce but to redeploy civil servants to be more productive to ensure efficiency.

He noted that the community governments would deploy their resources mainly to the newly introduced Rural Agricultural Programme (RAP) aimed at planting 100 million improved palm seedlings in the state.

On commercialisation programme of his administration, Okorocha said the April 1 commencement date had become a reality, pointing out that the government had stopped giving subventions to parastatal agencies.

He urged commissioners to ensure that the revenue generating potentials of their respective ministries were properly harnessed to enable them to pay salaries of their workers.

Okorocha also tasked heads of parastatal agencies to live up to expectations.

He said that the state government was committed to developing infrastructure and ensuring economic transformation of the state through good policies. (NAN)

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/04/imo-begins-re-deployment-of-civil-servants-to-communities/