The Bayelsa State government has said that henceforth only qualified directors in the mainstream civil service will be appointed as permanent secretaries.
The Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, disclosed this when he received in audience the paramount ruler, Ojo Magbisa, and the national executive council of Sagbama Federated Community in the Government House, Yenagoa, on Thursday.
He was responding to a request by the national president of the council, Ebi Evinson, that the government should consider Sagbama civil servants on the directorate level for appointment as permanent secretaries.
Ewhrudjakpo, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Doubara Atasi, said the decision was part of a new policy of the administration concerning the appointment of permanent secretaries.
The deputy governor also stressed that government would not appoint civil servants working in parastatals, agencies and extra-ministerial departments.
“The new policy is to promote professionalism, efficiency and productivity in the state civil service,” he said.
Reacting to the issue raised by the delegation on the low population of students at the Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro College of Education, Sagbama, Ewhrudjakpo attributed the problem to its earlier status of non-accreditation.
He said that the school had secured accreditation, urging the management of the COE to come up with what he called a ‘market penetration strategy’ to increase student enrollment.
On the dilapidated and inadequate infrastructure in the college, the deputy governor explained that as a matter of policy, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund supports two state-owned tertiary institutions on infrastructure development annually.
Ewhrudjakpo said the Niger Delta University and Bayelsa Medical University were the two institutions that benefited from TETFUND last year.
He promised that government would do its best to support the COE within the limits of available resources.
