The Gombe State Government has commenced a comprehensive physical verification exercise for civil servants to update personnel records and create a reliable digital database for its workforce.
The eight-week exercise, which began on Wednesday in Gombe, aims to eliminate ghost workers, improve record management, and strengthen manpower planning across the state civil service.
Speaking at the inauguration, the Chairperson of the Gombe State Civil Service Commission, Mrs. Rabi Jimeta, said the initiative was designed not to retrench workers but to promote transparency and efficiency.
She lamented that years of poor record keeping had hampered effective manpower planning and service delivery. “Over 7,000 workers will be verified and their data updated during the exercise,” she said.
Mrs. Jimeta explained that the verification would help identify and resolve issues such as ghost workers, overstay in service, missing documents, and unaccounted personnel on secondment or leave of absence.
“The aim is to determine the actual number and status of existing directorates and their staffing composition across all cadres,” she added. “This will enable us to maintain a secure, efficient, and digital personnel database for civil servants.”
She noted that the verification exercise is part of Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s civil service reforms, which seek to digitise the state’s administrative system and reduce dependence on paper records. According to her, the reforms will promote transparency, improve service delivery, and enhance governance through a modern online database.
Mrs. Jimeta clarified that the current exercise covers all civil servants except those in the judiciary, teaching, and medical sectors, who will undergo separate verification under their respective agencies. She urged all workers to cooperate with the verification teams to achieve a transparent and efficient system.
Also speaking, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Yusuf Aish-Bello, assured workers that the union was monitoring the exercise closely to ensure fairness.
“Workers with genuine records have nothing to fear,” he said. “However, anyone found to have falsified documents or engaged in fraudulent acts will not be defended by the union.”
The verification exercise marks another step in the state government’s efforts to strengthen accountability and enhance efficiency across its public service.
