Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has introduced electronic attendance registers to further check the activities of civil servants.
This is following the inability of the just-concluded workers’ screening exercise to bring down the state’s wage bill.
In the new system, workers are to clock in between 7.30 and 8am for resumption, 12pm for a break and 4pm for closure, on every working day. The time logged in by each worker would be used to determine the money due at month end.
The machines have been installed in all the ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) and would be monitored by the office of the Accountant-General of the State.
The Kogi state government is the first state in the country to introduce this measure.
Speaking with DailyPost, a civil servant said, ”Come to think of it, for instance, a PRO deployed to ministry of environment and whose parent ministry is Ministry of Information will have to go to the ministry three times a day and still have to contend with his work at the ministry of environment, with enormous costs, as the two ministries are located far from each other.
”Also, those who are on essential services would have to stop whatever they are doing to rush to the ministry to clock in three times per day.
”Is the new system not meant to sack workers and also to reduce salaries, since workers are going to be paid on number of clockings?
”Why are governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello’s policies tailored towards punishing workers?”
