By PETER DURU
COMRADE Richard Gbande is the Executive Chairman of Benue State Local Government Service Commission, BSLGSC. In this interview with Labour Vanguard, he spoke on government/labour relationship, among others.
Excerpt:
Since your assumption of office at the Benue local government service commission, there has been regular meetings between you and officials of the 23 councils. There are insinuations that these meetings are preluding a looming purge in the system?
Not all, I call the top echelon of the local government councils, that is, the bureaucrats, the departmental heads to charge them to enforce discipline at the third tier of government. You know that policy formulation and implementation are two different things. We had to brief them properly that Governor Gabriel Suswam's administration has come up with laudable programmes and policies to move the state forward.
If the implementers of policies who are the core engine room of governance fail in their responsibilities to take governance to the door steps of the rural populace, the aims of these polices will be a mirage. That informed my regular meetings with them to ensure that they implement the policies.
I also remind them of the fact that performance is a function of training, motivation and ability. Since my assumption, we have enhanced their carrier advancement to grade levels 16 and 17. We have been effecting their promotions as at when due. Benue state government has also implemented the new minimum wage at the councils.
(http://vml1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/benue-commisioner.jpg?9d7bd4) (http://www.vanguardngr.com/?attachment_id=297251)*Richard Gbande All their dues in terms of welfare packages are giving to them as at when due. Training and retraining has been our watch word and we have been organizing induction courses for them as well. So, they have no reason whatsoever to be indolent. I must state that we have no cases of victimization in the service.
So, to whom much is given much is expected. We expect them to be above board at all times and we expect them to take development to the door steps of the rural populace. Because it is only by so doing that the impact of government will be felt at that level.
Therefore all hands must be on deck to achieve this. If we get it right at that level, others will follow because all tiers of Government premise on the Local government. Once that tier of governments is developed the entire country is developed.
How far has the state government gone with implementation of N18.000 new wage at the local levels?
We have started paying the new wage to all council workers. No council worker is owed a kobo. All the staff of the 23 local government councils in the state are enjoying the new wage. You can verify for yourself.
You recently conducted a verification of workers at the 23 councils, what were your findings?
We conducted an exercise though it was not targeted at ghost workers per say, but we also found out that people who were not supposed to be in service at the attainment of 60 years or must have put in 35 years in service were still in service .
But after the discovery, we started the process of categorizing them with the intention of commencing their retirement process. In fact, after computing the figure of those on this category we found out that they are well over 1,800 persons. We are currently working on ways to ease them out of service to inject in fresh blood into the local government service. But in terms of ghost workers, that is quite negligible.
When I assumed duties as the Head of the commission, I repeatedly conducted verification exercises to ascertain the number of staff on our payroll. In fact, we did several familiarization tours, sensitized workers and we also opened registers to ascertain the actual number of workers. At the end of the day, we discovered that the service is bedeviled by people who are due for retirement but still hanging on. So, we took immediate action to address the anomaly without any form of compromise.
You are former President of NULGE and besides other positions as a unionist. Today, you in active partisan politics, how would you view politics and unionism?
In fact, the most important thing is that government is the employer of labour and labour is the creator of wealth just as it is the engine room of governance which implies that the two must always have a meeting point. The two must as a fact, come together and work together, after all, they are all gearing towards development.
They are partners in progress and we must see ourselves as such. Once we see ourselves as stakeholders, then the system will move ahead and make resounding success. That is exactly what we are doing here to partner each other. For example, when I was moving round the councils to sensitize local government staff on the need for greater performance and for all to key into the reforms of the third tier of government and even when we commenced the screening of council staff, NULGE was on the team.
The mother union and that of the councils were part and parcel of the team that went round to do the screening. At the end of the day, we had no problems because they saw transparency and accountability in the entire process. We were very transparent and honest with ourselves.
There was no cause or reason to insinuate on any issue and they also consented to our actions. It all tells you that once you take labour into confidence there will be no problem. As a former labour leader, I always take them into confidence and we have been working together.
We are all doing well and I have continued to urge my fellow comrades to keep up the spirit. However, I have also urge that they see reasons with me especially where the civil service rules and regulations are there to guide.
In deciding disciplinary cases, I always allow them to be around to see that we are doing the right thing. I must say of a truth that we all have been reciprocating that good gesture. I have also charged them to know that since I am their own, they are supposed to give me the best.
Vanguard Nigeria