According to Abia government, employment is not now a top focus.

Hiring more personnel for the state’s civil service is not a top priority for Abia Governor Alex Otti’s administration.

At Thursday’s monthly interactive session with the media in Umuahia, the governor disclosed this.

He indicated that after the government resolved its issues with the civil service, the topic of employment would come up.

He claims that I put in place an embargo, which is still in effect today.

He expressed dissatisfaction at the continued large number of people in the public service, even after verification.

Otti bemoaned the massive monthly pay expense for both local and state government, which comes to almost four billion naira.

The governor did, however, reassure that the government was making every effort to raise and improve the salary of public employees.

He claimed that the government knew that a sizable portion of the service might not be contributing to their full potential and that action would need to be taken.

He said, “So, it may not be a priority at this time to open up the doors to bring in new people, except if we have a way of exiting a few people.

“But you know, with the civil service rules, it is not going to be very easy to exit people.

“What we are trying to do with the establishment of the Civil Service Commission and resumption of the new Head of Service and new Permanent Secretaries is to ensure that our people are adequately trained.