FG to merge NEEDS document with seven-point agenda

Clement Idoko, Abuja - 15.01.2008

Federal Government on Monday gave indication that it would harmonise the National Economic Employment Development Strategies (NEEDS) document of former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the seven-point agenda of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Minister of National Planning Commission (NPC), Senator Sanusi Daggash, who represented Yar’Adua, in his keynote address at the 4th Business Roundtable with the government, said the proposal would be sent out next week to various ministries for their input in readiness for its launch in March.

Yar’Adua said plans of the government were to check the imbalance that existed between the civil servants and other workers in the other sectors of the economy.

The President expressed regrets that the government was faced with the challenge of getting and sustaining the first class graduates in the service, just as he promised to provide for excellence in the service.

He added that the imbalance had compelled the civil servants to look for other sources of income, promising that a template would be developed which would find a solution to the anomaly.

The template, he added, would require that each ministry retrain its staff or assess them on skill power so as to take decisions on either reviewing their quality or compensate those that are not trainable in the event they lose their jobs.

“The template is ready. Each and every ministry and department is going to carry out a skill assessment of the 400,000 or 500,000 civil servants that we have in the public service. Once we get that information, we are going to put it into some kind of database.

“We will now be able to assess each ministry or each individual. When we have that information, we will be able to take a decision even if it is going to be a hard decision,” he said.