Osun civil servants abandon staff audit, walk out in anger

Civil servants in Osun State have walked out of the ongoing staff audit on Thursday.

The staff audit is being carried out by the Osun State Government through a consulting firm, Saibot Consulting.

Some civil servants who spoke with reporters claimed the way the consultant has been treating them during the exercise angered them. They lamented that they could no longer endure the embarrassment.

The workers also kicked against the exercise, describing it as baseless.

One of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “We don’t see the need for the exercise as it is baseless; they could have called it transition and got the details from the previous consultant (Charms), instead of wasting everybody’s precious time.”

Efforts to get the consultant to speak about the development proved abortive.

Also at the venue of the exercise, labour union leaders in the state gave a directive to all their members not to continue until after their review meeting and when their decision has been communicated to civil servants in the state.

News recalls that the Osun State Government had mandated its workers to go for the staff audit.

While organised labour in the state had kicked against the exercise, alleging that they were not adequately consulted, the state government, on the other hand, assured that the exercise was not a witch hunt but an effort to reposition the state civil service to be one of the best in the country.

The academic and non-academic staff of the state-owned tertiary institutions had called on the state government to decentralise the exercise.

They alleged that the consultant is incompetent and threatened that if the exercise is not decentralised, they may embark on industrial action.