Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle of Zamfara State has sacked 21 out of his 47 permanent secretaries and announced the creation of 7 new Directorates in the state.
According to a statement by the state government, the affected secretaries were fired for being unqualified for the position.
A report by the committee constituted for the restructuring of the state civil service submitted to Governor Matawalle on the 9th of October 2019, the committee said it is worrisome that the state which has only seventeen ministries and fourteen local government areas could be operating with 47 permanent secretaries.
Governor Matawalle in a statewide broadcast, also announced that he accepted the recommendations for the restructuring of ministries from the existing 19 to 11.
“It accepted the recommendations for the restructuring of ministries from the existing 19 to 11. However, after careful consideration, the government has approved the following ministries:
Similarly, in addition to the existing Directorates, the Government has approved the establishment of the following new Directorates and Bureaus: Directorate of Housing and Urban Development; Directorate of Lands and Survey; Directorate of Chieftaincy Affairs; Directorate of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development; Directorate of Labour Matters; Directorate of Inter-community Relations; Bureau for Public Procurement; Bureau for Public Service Reform.
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“Another thorny issue addressed by the report of the Committee on Restructuring of the Civil Service is that of the number of our permanent secretaries vis a vis our scarce resources. All assessments have shown that our state has a far greater number of permanent secretaries than any of our sister states in the north-west, saying that with 47 permanent secretaries, the system has become saturated and overburdened.” ‘
‘The Restructuring Committee, therefore, invited all the permanent secretaries and subjected them to a written test and interview in order to assess their competence” “Based on the outcome of the assessment, only 25 out of the 47 qualified for retention as permanent secretaries.”
The Committee also recommended the appointment of one additional person, in recognition of his worthiness, as a permanent secretary, bringing the number of the permanent secretaries recommended to 26, stressing that the white paper committee accepted the recommendations
“As for the permanent secretaries who did not qualify for retention government would consider those found eligible for appointment as career Directors General, Managing Directors, Executive Secretaries, Secretaries and other appropriate positions.”
