President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared that civil servants who relocated abroad while still receiving salaries without formally resigning must return the wages they collected during that period.
Speaking at the 2024 Civil Service Award and Gala Night, the highlight of the week-long 2024 Civil Service Week held at the Abuja Continental Hotel, Tinubu addressed this issue directly.
The revelation came from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation during a media parley marking the 2024 Civil Service Week.
She noted that some employees had moved abroad while continuing to draw salaries without properly resigning.
However, she assured that steps have been taken to tackle this problem.
On Saturday,Tinubu emphasized, “We must ensure those responsible are held accountable and restitution is made.”
He asserted, “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.”
President Tinubu stressed that the Civil Service cannot be a place where “anything is possible,” where rules are violated without consequences.
“The civil service of any nation is too important for such misconduct to take root or be tolerated,” he continued.
“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,” he added.
