By Kunle SHONUGA
Rivers Head of Service (HOS), Mr Rufus Godwin, says fresh retirees in the state will have their biometrics captured first month after service for inclusion in the payroll of the state’s pensioners.
Godwin gave the assurance during the send-off ceremony of Permanent Secretaries in the state who retired between 2015 and 2018 on Saturday in Port Harcourt.
He said that the immediate capturing was to reduce the cumbersome process of getting their data captured which at times took up to a year or more to accomplish.
The HOS decried the long delay in capturing retirees’ biometric data, saying that government had decided to reduce the length of the process.
Godwin urged the permanent secretaries to send their retirement data to their different ministries to be captured in the payroll the first month they retire from service.
“There is no better time to retire than now because those retiring from this time are doing so at the best time when the state government had put a lot in place to show appreciation to those who served tirelessly.
“Plans are on ground to ensure that permanent secretaries will be using their service car after service until their retirement vehicles were ready,” he said.
He urged them to take up assignments in the civil service commission whenever they were called to do so by government.
The head of service said that the state had captured 12,466 pensioners through the data collection of retirees also through their physical and biometric verification.
He urged those who had not gone through the process to do so at their different ministries individually and not.
In his speech, the Chairman of Civil Service Commission, Mr Oris Onyiri, advised the retirees to build a strong relationship with their colleagues..
Onyiri urged them not to stay far from the commission because their experience would be needed to better the state.
Furthermore, the Chairman of the Forum of Permanent Secretaries, Dr. George Nwaeke, congratulated all the retirees and urged them to continue with their good works.
Nwaeke, pleaded with them to take life easy and also live a healthy life.
30 retired permanent secretaries were honoured with awards.
