Federal employees on study leave have been ordered by the federal government to provide documentation of their approval from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
This is in response to the observation made by Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Federation’s Head of Civil Service, that the Federal Government has now established a system for routinely verifying employees in order to determine their “true” location.
This was disclosed in a memo sent on Friday to our correspondent in Abuja, which was sent to all permanent secretaries.
In August 2021, the Federal Government became concerned about government employees requesting study leave using admission letters from dubious overseas universities.
Similarly in 2022, the government ordered that such workers be made to sign bonds in a bid to curtail the “abuse” of study leave by civil servants.
While addressing the new development alongside the need for physical verification, Yemi-Esan in the memo said, “As part of the efforts to sustain the gains of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System , it has become imperative to emplace a mechanism for regular physical verification of officers in the service.
“To this end, you are directed to carry out physical verification exercise of all staff in your ministry to ascertain the location of each officer.
“Officers who may be on study leave must show evidence of the approval of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to embark on such leave. This should be indicated in the remark column.
“The report of the exercise, to be signed by the permanent secretary, should be submitted to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service on or before 2nd April 2024.”
