The Oyo State government will, henceforth, prioritise pre-retirement training for civil and public servants with less than five years to retire in the state.
Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye, the state Commissioner for Establishment and Training, stated this on Thursday during his maiden meeting with the staffers of the ministry.
Olaleye said that such training would expose the affected workers to life after retirement and make them prepare for useful engagements after retirement.
He said that the present administration had much interest in the welfare of retired workers, adding “that is one of the reasons Gov. Seyi Makinde has made payment of pension and gratuities one of his priorities since the inception of his administration.”
The commissioner, who described the ministry as the engine room of civil and public service, said: “training and development of civil servants are the major responsibilities of the ministry.
”It is our statutory responsibility to make recommendations to government on the needs of civil servants, especially their welfare, promotions and payment of gratuities, among others, and I promise to ensure that we carry out these responsibilities effectively.
”When civil servants complain about welfare and others benefits, it behoves on them to make their requests known to government while it is the ministry’s duty to ensure that they are attended to.
”It is the ministry that drives the efficiency and productivity of government and we have the responsibility to ensure that civil servants get adequate training for better service delivery,” he stated.
According to him, only well-trained, well-developed and happy public servants can drive government’s policies and programmes.
The commissioner pledged to involve experienced resource persons within and outside the system in the training programmes.
”We will ensure that retired permanent secretaries, heads of service and even former governors are invited to share their experiences while they were in government,” Olaleye said.
On the bad state of the Simeon Adebo Staff Development Centre, the commissioner said that there was a lot to be done to put the centre in good shape.
”We are going to rehabilitate the centre and put it into better use; we do not need to go to other places to hold conferences, trainings and other government activities when we have such a facility on ground,” he said.
