Nigeria Content Online

The Head of the
Civil Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, yesterday
inaugurated the administrative panel set up by the federal government
to investigate the crisis in the Ministry of Interior.

Speaking at the
inauguration, Mr. Oronsaye said the government was concerned because
the incident at the Ministry of Interior on Wednesday, last week, where
workers demonstrated and demanded for the removal of the Permanent
Secretary, was unprecedented.

He added that the aim of setting up the panel was to understand the remote and immediate causes of the crisis.

The panel, he said,
is free to go into any area and summon anybody in the course of its
investigation. He however urged its members to be fair.

Solve the problem

“The
recommendations of the panel should not only help to solve the problem
in the Ministry of Interior but also assist in defining the
relationship between workers and management and that between Ministers
and Permanent Secretaries,” he told the panelists.

The Head of the
Service disclosed that members of the three-man panel were carefully
selected because of their track record in administration and public
service.

Responding on
behalf of other members, chairman of the panel and Special Adviser to
the President on New Partnership for Africa Development, Tunji
Olagunju, thanked the federal government for trusting them to do the
job and said the assignment is a challenge which members will try to
discharge responsibly.

Others members of
the committee are Titilayo Iroche, a retired Permanent Secretary and
Commissioner with the National Salaries and Wages Commission; and Isa
Bello Sali, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, who will also serve
as its secretary.

The panel has a period of two weeks to complete the assignment.