The recently concluded five-day civil service verification exercise in Rivers State may have ended on Monday, but the concerns it raised are far from over. Stakeholders are now calling on the state government to urgently address staff shortages across various ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), which they say are undermining productivity and service delivery.
Elder statesman and retired civil servant from Rumuolumeni community, Mr. Johnson Amadi, expressed concern over the discrepancies in staff strength uncovered during the exercise. According to him, many ministries remain grossly understaffed due to ongoing retirements and a lack of new recruitment.
“The state government itself has admitted that there were shortages in the civil service. Shortage of staff is almost in every MDA, so there is need for recruitment,” Amadi stated. “The ones in the civil service are ageing, and people retire almost on a monthly basis. Naturally, it will affect productivity.”
He noted that some ministries have resorted to hiring casual workers to fill staffing gaps, a temporary fix that cannot replace a fully staffed, well-trained workforce. Amadi also emphasized the need for the retraining and upskilling of existing personnel to ensure efficient public service delivery.
Residents of Port Harcourt also weighed in on the verification exercise and its implications. While some welcomed the process, others questioned its effectiveness and overall value.
“The verification is good,” one resident said. “They need to check whether people are really working, because some are receiving salaries without doing the job.”
Another respondent raised concerns about the outcome of the exercise:
“If the essence is to check the presence of ghost workers, whether they achieve it or not, we don’t even know. And even when they don’t achieve it, the cost of maintaining the civil service will still be going high, rather than coming down. It feels like a waste of time and resources.”
Yet another resident pointed to the economic realities faced by civil servants:
“It is not necessary. The pay is not enough, and people are doing other jobs alongside government work just to meet their needs.”
As Rivers State government reviews the results of the verification, the growing calls for recruitment, transparency, and workforce reform are becoming harder to ignore. Observers say that unless the staffing gaps are addressed, productivity and morale in the state’s civil service will continue to decline.
