Governor Chime gave the assurance while addressing the closing ceremony of this year’s civil service week at the Michael Okpara Square Enugu at the weekend.

Governor Chime, who was represented by his deputy Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, told the people, "you should eschew bribery and corruption, uphold good work ethics…my administration will restore the dignity and integrity of the State civil service."

Governor Chime called on civil and public servants to rise up to the challenges with government to restore the dignity and integrity of the State civil service by being dedicated and transparent in the discharge of their duties.

The governor also enjoined the workers to shun bribery and corruption and to uphold the work ethics at all times towards building an enviable civil service worthy of emulation.

He explained that his administration had taken a number of steps and actions in demonstrating its friendly disposition towards workers, their condition of service and welfare.

These include among others, setting up of a committee to review the minimum wage in the State, a committee set up to compile the present salary owed parastatals with a view to settling them, recall of all workers disengaged from Enugu State civil service since 1999 and the absorption of 59 indigenes of Enugu State who were displaced in other States of the Federation.

In his words, "very importantly, 25th of every month has been designated by the governor as salary day in Enugu State… you can see that you have friend in governor Chime, who is committed to the welfare of the workers and all citizens of the State."

He urged the civil servants to reciprocate this gesture by being dedicated to their duties, adding that they should shun bribery and corruption in the discharge of their duties.

In his address, the State Head of Service, Mr. Albert Edoga called on the State government to direct attention now to capacity building, provision of modern equipment and complete renovation of offices at the secretariat.

According to the Head of Service, "now that government has addressed the workers welfare, we hope that government would move into other areas… renovating our offices, and equipping offices to modern standard to bring the civil servants in Enugu State in line with their counterparts in Nigeria ."

"While up till now we are still using the Olympic typewriter abandoned many years ago in the civil service, we also urge government to think in the area of training and retraining of workers to become productive and in line with modern trend." Mr. Edeoga said.

The State Head of service used the occasion to thank the State Governor Mr. Sullivan Chime for his government’s special interest in the welfare of workers and appealed to workers to gear up effort to reciprocate these kind gesture by being dedicated to their duties. In his words, "On our part… I urge workers to reciprocate the good gesture of government by being punctual to their duty posts and signing off at 4 pm… to be dedicated to their duties by rendering selfless and condition free services to the public… reduce time delay in treatment of files and above all, develop a culture of good relationship among themselves."

He reminded them that all the civil service rules would be applied strictly and said that, "we expect workers to run their service through the laid down guidelines in the service."

Also in his address, the state Chairman, Joint Negotiating Council, Mr. Tony Ude described the administration of governor Sullivan Chime in Enugu State as labour friendly. Mr. Ude commended the governor for measures taken so far to better the lots of workers and appealed to him to restore in-service training for workers abandoned some years ago, fast track the committee handling the enhancement of workers wages and to withdraw the circular that limited payment of arrears to three months.

The labour leader on behalf of workers in the state appealed to all those who are still aggrieved over the last April general election to withdraw what ever suit they have in court and join hands with the Sullivan administration in its efforts to develop the state and better the living condition of our people.

The closing ceremony featured match past by workers drawn from various ministries, departments and parastatals in the State where the office of the SSG took the first position.