President Bola Tinubu has said that civil servants who relocated abroad but are still receiving salaries from the Federal coffers must be made to refund the money.

The President stated this at an event organized by the office of the head of the civil service of the federation (HOCSF) to mark the 2024 civil service weekon Saturday, June 22.

Speaking at the vent, President Tinubu who was represented by George Akume, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), directed that the heads and supervisors of the departments of such workers must also be sanctioned.

“While I was away in South Africa, I monitored some of the activities and especially read the shocking revelation by the head of service about hundreds of workers who had relocated abroad, without formally resigning their appointments and who were drawing salaries from the treasury, for years.

Although, the head of service said some of these fraudulent workers have been uncovered, she should not stop there.

The culprits must be made to refund the money they have fraudulently collected. Their supervisors and department heads must also be punished for aiding and abetting the fraud under their watch. The Nigerian civil service cannot just be a workplace where ‘anything is possible,’ where workers violate rules without the fear of punishment or repercussion.

The civil service of any nation is too important for such delinquent behaviour to take root or be tolerated. The civil service is the bedrock, the engine, the locomotive of government, which is necessary for the government to deliver public goods to citizens.

As politicians, we are no more than drivers of the locomotives that you provide. Those who say that a nation is as good as its civil service are close to the truth. You are the real establishment that remains to pilot government affairs as we politicians come and go.

Over the decades, successive governments initiated various national development plans and programmes and all relied on the civil service to translate such plans into high-impact programmes and projects across all sectors of the nation’s economy. We expect you to do the same under our administration.

This is why we support building, nurturing, and empowering the human capital in the service. This is why there is a paramount need to enshrine a culture of professionalism and build confidence in civil servants,” he said.