Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi has sacked a Permanent Secretary in the State Civil Service for being unable to calculate Civil Servants’ Gratuities.
Umahi disclosed this, on Tuesday, during the swearing of new Permanent Secretaries and members of the State’s Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, in Abakaliki.
His words; “I retired a permanent secretary in the Ebonyi civil service prematurely because the official could not calculate civil servants’ gratuities,’’ Governor David Umahi said on Tuesday in Abakaliki.
“The deputy governor asked me to reverse the decision, but I declined, and that will be his first request that I am not granting in the eight years that he has been deputy governor. You can still give me the elements which make up the gratuity even if you don’t know how to calculate it.’’
The Ebonyi State governor, however, said he might reverse the decision and urged the newly sworn-in officials to read widely, noting that the civil servants’ gratuity issue in Ebonyi was worrisome.
He noted that Permanent Secretaries in Ebonyi are among the best in the country, and urged them to maintain the standard.
Umahi said; “We have raised a standard in Ebonyi that makes us compete with the best in the world. Anyone who fails to meet the standard will be asked whether or not he comes from Ebonyi.
“Set examinations for yourselves on performance because Ebonyi should not be your limits in exposure and proficiency.”
He added that the theory that “helped me, which should also help you, is to regard public duties or services as your personal business.”
He stressed that he diligently understudied the Israelis, and it helped him to attain engineering proficiency.
“I was tutored in an Israeli firm in 1987 on a monthly salary of N650. I listened to my mentors, and though I have just a first degree in engineering, I can debate favourably with a professor in the field,’’ he said.