The Abia State Government has begun certificates verification of 7,582 out of the 36,875 uploaded online by the civil servants as part of ongoing exercise in the service at various institutions.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Culture, Okey Kanu stated this while briefing the media on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting chaired by Governor Alex Otti.
Kanu also announced that out of the 36,875 certificates, a total 25,458 were career documents.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the exercise followed government’s directive to civil and public servants in its ministries, departments and agencies and the 17 local governments to upload their credentials online.
The Commissioner said the directive followed discoveries by government when it wanted to make certain appointments from within the service.
“The governor, Alex Otti asked that the files of workers be looked through and those who are qualified to take up those positions, let their papers be brought forward,” he noted.
“But when the files of some senior civil servants were brought forward for consideration, some of the necessary documents were not available in them.
“At a point in time, the government considered whether to embark on a show-your-credentials exercise, but dropped the idea for some obvious reasons.”
However, the state councils of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), including the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faulted the directive as a disguise for a second staff verification exercise by the government within one year in office.
The Commissioner, however, denied the allegations, saying the three spoke from the point of their ignorance of what the government needed to resolve at that time.