Former Taraba State Acting Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar has condemned the ongoing mass retrenchment of workers employed during his administration, saying the action shows the state governor Darius Ishaku is ignorant of the state problem.
Umar in a statement signed by the spokesperson, Garba Umar Political Organization, Aaron Artimas said the problem in the state is not an over-bloated staff strength but outright stealing or unbridled corruption through odorous and nauseating behaviors like the cancerous ghost workers syndrome.
Artimas noted that with the ongoing mass retrenchment of workers, “Taraba state has not formally recruited staff for over twenty years except during Alhaji Garba Umar who recruited out of very serious need to ameliorate the situation.”
According to Artimas, “the comical or laughable reversible of recruitments and transfers of all staff since November 2012 clearly demonstrates the fact that the government is completely ignorant of the problems of Taraba state.
“Taraba state has over twenty thousand vacancies in its public service because nearly seventy percent of staff inherited from defunct Gongola state have either retired or died.
” Many departments and key sectors like Administration, Fire service, Judiciary, Land and survey, Education and Medical staff have now less than forty percent of their required staff strength.
“In the Teaching service alone there are more than six thousand vacancies as most of our schools and colleges have no teachers while they continue to churn out poor results.
“Most ministries, Departments and Agencies have no junior and immediate staff, while some manpower staff have spent more than five years without employment. Last year some Accountants who had been stealing an average of two hundred million Naira, from the monthly salary bill were later returned to work just to satisfy political interest,” Artimas said.
By this latest action, the government was either playing to the gallery or pursuing an agenda. It should be noted that, Taraba state has not formally recruited staff for over twenty years except during Alhaji Garba Umar who recruited out of very serious need to ameliorate the situation,” Artimas said.
