Gusau-The Zamfara government has called on civil servants in the state to remain calm at the ongoing verification and biometric data capturing of its workforce.
Alhaji Musa Anka, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, made the call on Wednesday in Gusau while speaking with newsmen.
He said that the exercise was introduced to address irregularities in the civil service, adding that it was not meant to sack any worker.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that workers in the state had expressed concern that the verification and biometric data capturing should not be used to retrench them.
Anka said the government had noticed that there were irregularities in the data, records and numbers of civil servants on its payroll.
The Permanent Secretary, who is also the chairman, technical committee of the exercise, said that the government had noticed increase in the number of civil servants on its monthly payroll.
“In a normal situation, the number of workers should not be increasing always unless there is new recruitment.
“But unfortunately here in Zamfara, our number of workers is increasing every month even without new workers being recruited.
“That is why the government constituted the committee to carry out the verification to verify genuine workers on its payroll,’’ he explained.
Anka said that another reason for the exercise was to digitise the data and records of civil servants in the state.
He urged the workers to remain calm, saying the exercise was not aimed at sacking anybody but to ensure due process in the civil service.
He also urged them to cooperate with the government to enable it succeed in the exercise.
Anka appealed to the public not to spread mischievous rumours about the verification.
NAN recalled that Mr Bashir Mafara, the Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Zamfara said last week that the government had the full backing of the union to embark on the exercise.
According to him, the exercise is aimed at ascertaining the exact number of workers on the payroll of the government.