Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has restated that the staff audit exercise across the state public service is not a witch hunt.

Adeleke also assured the state workforce that the audit will strengthen the capacity of the state government to satisfy the needs of the workers, the members of the public, and the state leadership.

According to a statement by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, on Saturday, the governor made this known at the flagging off of the exercise in Osogbo.

The exercise, it was also revealed, is meant as a plan to fill up existing vacancies within education, health, and other sub-sectors in the state.

According to the governor, “I want to assure workers and other stakeholders that the staff audit is not a witch hunt. Our administration has workers’ welfare as number one on its governance agenda. So we will not take any action that will negatively affect formal and informal workers.

“The audit is to achieve several goals, namely cleaning up the payroll system, validating the actual number of state workers, and establishing areas of vacancies across various sectors of the public service. We need to authenticate the data from our workforce.

“We also need to confirm existing vacancies within the public service. I have earlier issued a directive for the compilation of vacancies for teachers and health workers. The compilation is almost complete. The outcome will then provide what we call data-driven management of our public service.

“We are ascertaining the number of teachers we need in our schools. Our team is checking out the number of science, English, mathematics, social science, and other teachers, as well as which schools need what types of teachers.

“I assure the public that we are aware of the existing vacancies in our schools and health facilities.”

The audit report Adeleke maintained will provide a strong foundation for the recruitment of new teachers and health workers, which his administration will embark upon after the ongoing exercise.

The Daily Post recalls that the labor force in Osun State initially kicked against the exercise on the ground that the state government did not consult and carry it along.

Also, the governor had, through an Executive Order upon assumption of office in November 2022, suspended the newly recruited health workers and teachers employed by Adegboyega Oyetola in the twilight of his administration.

He later set up a committee to review the recruitment procedures and present a white paper on them.