As part of the need to curb work absenteeism and payroll fraud, the Bayelsa State government has insisted that only workers who sign attendance register will be paid.

The State Governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, has directed all Permanent Secretaries in the state to henceforth, generate the payroll of their respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), from workers’ duty attendance registers, making good his promise of implementing a ‘No Work No Pay’ policy.

At a press conference after the meeting, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Honourable Jonathan Obuebite, described the directive as well-intentioned and targeted at achieving total compliance with the new policy to check absenteeism and payroll fraud in the State Public Service.

According to Honourable Obuebite, the meeting emphasised the need for heads of MDAS to instil discipline in their various offices to promote productivity and efficiency.

He expressed optimism on the success of the current monitoring system, pointing out that, preliminary reports indicate that workers have started complying.

The Information Commissioner urged itinerant workers and those on secondment to only sign the attendance register at the outpost where they are assigned to avoid a situation where such workers would be shuttling between their parent MDAs and places of posting.

“On the contentious issue of those who are working in ministries that have outposts, for instance, in the Information Ministry where we have information officers that are posted to different MDAS, they are going to sign their own attendance there and not in the Ministry of Information.

“But it was made clear that every worker will sign the attendance register that is provided for the particular ministry, department or agency they are working. At the end of the period, they are going to do harmonisation of registers.

“The Governor also told them that going forward, payrolls would be generated by them (permanent secretaries), as they are already doing but this time through registers which they have now so that from the attendance, they are going to generate the payroll for payment of civil servants in the state,” he told reporters.