Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Thursday announced that beginning March 1st, 2023, the state government would prohibit using cash in government offices.
Governor Obaseki disclosed this during a Code of Ethics engagement with senior management staff of the Edo State civil/public service as part of the state government’s transformation enhancement programme (Edo STEP), held at the Government House in Benin City.
“I have issued a circular that effective March 1st, government offices will be prohibited from using cash. The government is pushing toward a cashless economy. So, why must the service dodge transparency? We should be able to explain every amount we spend and how we earned it”, the governor said.
CORON- A 4k Aerial Film of the Philippines
Obaseki urged civil and public servants in the state to shun corruption and adhere to the code of ethics in discharging their duties.
“We believe in the civil and public service as without you, and we cannot have a functioning government. That is why we have, in the last six years, made your welfare a priority. We pay salaries and pensions on the 26th of each month. We have refurbished your work environment for optimal service delivery. Today, our civil and public servants are the most technology compliant in the country.
“We are deploying resources to ensure that every local government is connected via fiber optic before October this year.”
“We have a crisis in our hands where we are trying to change and improve things for you. Most of you want that, but a lot of people still behave the way they used to conduct in the past.
“If we struggle every month to make sure you get your salary on time, why must you now feel that focusing on other areas, trying to make money from other areas illegitimately, is what we should still be doing by this time?”
“The level of waste and corruption in our public service must be reduced. If you need us to do more and make more resources available, then we must all agree to work together to cut down on the waste and the corruption in our system. We also must agree to be fair to the government and the people who pay the taxes”, Obaseki stressed.
In his opening remarks, the Edo State Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa, noted that apart from signing the undertaking, the engagement was to discuss the impediments to maximum service delivery and seek solutions to deepen the administration’s gains in the transformative agenda of the service.
“What are the issues bedeviling the service? Why have we not been doing as much as expected with so much the governor has done for the service allowing corruption, indolence, and complaints to bedevil the system still?