A month after top Civil Servants in the rank of Permanent Secretaries were retired from the Imo state work force, another holocaust is about to hit the State Secretariat as the state government has concluded arrangements to offload ranking officers in the various Ministries, parasatals and agencies.
This development is coming on the heels of Tuesday’s declaration by the state government that embargo on employment has been lifted.
Not less than 120 workers in the rank of Directors and Deputy Directors, Executive Officers and other categories have been penciled down for retirement any moment from now in subtle tactics to create vacuums. It was gathered that mostly affected in the retrenchment exercise are those who are said to have benefited from the controversial study leave and those with questionable data.
It would be recalled that the issue of study leave has raised reactions in the civil service. While the workforce insists on getting the four years extra that was spent for study leave without pay, the state government is strongly objecting to it. A Federal Government Circular, after Labour Union request granted the inclusion of four years in the service of those who underwent study leave without pay. The Udenwa government in Imo overlooked it towards the end of his regime. After hesitation and undecided about implementing the circular, Ikedi Ohakim agreed to adopt the policy.
However, the present administration thinks otherwise as the jobs of the beneficiaries are on the line. The decision to force the workers into retirement is causing uneasy calm and tension in the state civil service as most of the beneficiaries are unsure about their fate in the coming exercise.
