The Enugu State Monitoring Team on Work Attendance and Productivity queried absentee council workers during an unscheduled visit to the Ezeagu Local Government headquarters at Aguobu-Owa on Friday.
The team led by the Head of Service, Mr Kenneth Ugwu, also read the riot act to civil servants in the state, who are fond of abstaining from work for various reasons.
The team was received by the Chief Executive Officer, administration, at the council, Mrs Lorita Akwuchie.
According to a statement issued by the Media Office of the state governor, Peter Mbah, on Friday, the unscheduled visit followed a viral video on social media, which showed the local government headquarters being deserted on Friday, April 5, contrary to a recent directive that civil servants in the state must work for five days in a week.
The statement said Governor Mbah’s administration is currently undertaking a staff audit of local government councils in the state following reports that most people on the state’s payroll do not report for duties regularly.
During the visit to the Ezeagu council headquarters on Friday, the team, which comprised the Head of Service, Mr. Kenneth Ugwu; Principal Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ken Chukwuegbo; Chairman, Enugu State Chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Ben Asogwa; and the Chairman, Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, Comrade Ezekiel Omeh, among others, met only 36 out of the over 200 council workers.
Speaking during the visit, the Head of Service, Mr Ugwu, who led the team, vowed that the council workers’ acts of negligence and absence from duty without permission would be punished as productivity remains the watchword of the state governor.
