The Ondo State Government has commenced the 2027 promotion exercise for over 2,500 workers across the state’s public service.
This is contained in a statement issued on Wednesday in Akure by Mr Sina Adeyeye, Director of Information, Office of the Head of Service(HoS).
The statement said the exercise was flagged off at the state secretariat in Alagbaka, Akure on Tuesday, by the Head of Service, Chief Segun Odusanya.
Speaking, Odusanya said the early commencement of the promotion exercise was to avoid unnecessary encumbrances associated with payment of financial benefits arrears should the promotion be approved later in the year.
According to him, with the early commencement of the exercise, prospective beneficiaries would start receiving their letters of promotion on the first working day of year 2027 with the attendant financial benefits, giving no room for any accumulated arrears.
Odusanya used the occasion to thank Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for the prompt approval, describing him as worker-friendly governor who always accedes to any proposal that would improve the welfare of workers in particular and the citizens in general.
He challenged the workers to reciprocate the gesture by continually supporting all the programmes and policies of Governor Aiyedatiwa geared towards the realisation of his developmental agenda for the state encapsulated in ‘OUR EASE’ agenda.
In his words, ‘What prompted this early commencement is this issue of payment of promotion arrears. You will recall that we recently digitalised our payroll system and the personnel records making it easier for us to know who and who are due for promotion every year and the attandant financial cost.’
‘So one of the things we are trying to do is to do away with the issue of backlog of arrears. With this, we want to ensure that the issue of promotion arrears does not even arise in the first place.’ The Head of Service added.
‘I want to thank Mr Governor. When we approached him, he graciously approved that we should start the promotion exercise early as he had always done whenever we approached him for anything that bothered on workers’ welfare such as the recently approved increment in workers car and housing loans as well as the Duty Tour Allowance, DTA.’
‘So by January beneficiaries would be getting their promotion letters and the financial will follow promptly. It’s a win-win situation. Our workers will be motivated, there won’t be any problem of arrears and government business will continue to run smoothly,” he concluded.
Speaking earlier, Permanent Secretary, Office of Establishment and Training, Mrs Yemi Pirisola, thanked the Head of Service and Governor Aiyedatiwa for the early commencement of the 2027 promotion exercise.
Pirisola noted that it was unprecedented in the recent history of the state to commence a year promotion before the end of the preceding year.
She disclosed that about 2,500 deserving officers had been penciled down for the year 2027 promotion across ministries, departments and agencies of government in the state.
In his reaction at the event, the Chairman of the Joint Negotiating Council(JNC) in the state, Comrade Segun Ajiboye commended the Head of Service for always standing up for the workers in agitations for better welfare.
Ajiboye added that the Head of Service’s tenure had brought unprecedented reliefs for the workers.
He expressed hope that other agitations of workers would receive such approval in no distant time.
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