The Cross-River State Government has recruited no fewer than 4,000 new workers into its local government system within the last one year, the first large-scale employment in the councils in nearly four decades.

Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), Mr. Darlington Eyo, who disclosed this on Tuesday, explained that the recruitment drive, approved by Governor Bassey Otu under his ‘People first’ agenda was aimed at addressing severe manpower shortages in the councils.

“When we came on board, we discovered that instead of the 12,000 to 13,000 staff strength expected in the councils, only about 3,000 were on ground. The governor considered this unacceptable and approved mass recruitment to strengthen grassroots governance,” he said.

The commission chairman noted that out of the 4,000 newly engaged staff, over 3,000 have already been placed on the payroll, while the process of clearing others was still ongoing.

He added that the exercise would continue in phases until the manpower gap was filled.

Eyo also revealed that an audit of council workers’ records led to the discovery of more than 800 ghost workers, who have since been removed from the payroll.

According to him, this has reduced the state’s wage burden and ensured that funds are directed to genuine employees.

On allegations of job racketeering, he maintained that the recruitment process was transparent and not for sale.

“To the best of my knowledge, no one in the commission is selling jobs. If anyone outside parades themselves as an agent, such a person will be exposed. We have a system that can fish them out,” he warned.

The commission, he added, is also implementing training and capacity building programmes for both new and existing workers to enhance service delivery at the grassroots.