[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has presented land title documents to benefiting staff of Zone one Headquarters Kaduna, with a promise for more welfare programmes.
According to Bisi Kazeem, Head Media Relations and Strategy, FRSC, he gave the assurances in Kaduna state sector command while presenting Land Title Documents to one hundred (100) beneficiaries of land acquisition scheme under the “One staff, One house project,” being executed by the Post Service Scheme (PSS).
The Corps Marshal expressed satisfaction with the level of success recorded by the scheme within a short time, calling on staff to invest more in their future. He noted that fear of retiring into penury and homelessness accounted for why many staff hesitate to retire after completing their years of service.
According to him, his Management decided to take the decision to introduce the policy in view of the plight of such staff, stating that with the success so far recorded through the medium term loan, auto loan and landed property, the initial cynicism expressed by some staff has given way to hope and confidence in the scheme. “The Post Service Scheme (PSS) is a novel idea that was initiated based on the belief that as public servants, we must not consume all that we have today, but plan and save some for the rainy day when we would be out of service,” he stated.
The Corps Marshal pointed out that PSS came out of Management’s realization that many staff that retired from service easily became distressed due to lack of personal savings and difficulties associated with accessing pensions on retirement. “With this reality, I made up my mind to break the jinx by instituting a programme of gradual contribution by staff towards their days of retirement,” he further stated.
The Corps Marshal reiterated his commitment to ensuring that no staff looses a kobo contributed into the scheme, saying the various programmes and projects being initiated to address immediate and long term financial challenges of the staff have been well thought out by the Board of Trustees. “These projects have been carefully selected after a careful study to determine their importance to the realization of staff’s immediate and long term welfare needs,” he stated.
“I want to reassure you all that we would not rest on our oars but continue to work hard to come out with more ideas that could alleviate the sufferings of the staff and motivating them for improved productivity,” the Corps Marshal added.
The FRSC Boss further noted that in line with the accountability posture of his Management, staff are constantly being updated of their monthly contributions, adding that alert and mails stating their contribution have been activated. “Consequently, every staff is expected to receive monthly alert based on the deductions made from the salaries,” he stated.
“To ensure unhindered feedback mechanism, telephone numbers are equally provided for further clarifications in case there are grey areas.
“All these measures are meant to build the confidence and trust of the staff in the system with a view that it would encourage staff to believe that nothing would happen to their contributions,” he further stated
The Zonal Commanding Officer, Zone one, Kaduna, Assistant Corps Marshal Bulus Darwang who welcomed guests to the event commended the Corps Marshal for the initiative. He pointed out that the success of the scheme is evidenced by the number of beneficiaries that had so far accessed the various facilities as evidenced in the presentation of land title documents to staff of the Kaduna Zone. He further stated that even though many staff were initially skeptical about the policy when initially concaved, the success so far recorded has proved them wrong.
“At the commencement of this scheme, a lot of staff were cynical and had some misgivings about the projects, success and its sustainability. But two years down the line, the cynicism and misgivings have been cleared and the success story is now on the lips of every staff,” he stated.
Assistant Corps Marshal Darwang called on the Management to give special consideration for the Kaduna Zone when future welfare schemes are being implemented in order to cater for the large number of commands and staff that fall under the zone.
Some of the beneficiaries of the land scheme who spoke at the event expressed happiness at their being considered, and expressed confidence with the way the scheme was being managed.
Post Service Scheme is an initiative of the FRSC Management by which staff contribute certain percentage of their salaries which would be paid back to them on their retirement from the Corps. Under the scheme, the contributed funds are invested into Medium Term Loan, Auto Loan and Landed property for staff who are expected to repay back within a stipulated time very low interest in the efforts to address immediate and long term welfare needs of the staff.
