Federal Civil Servants on study leave are now to show evidence of approval obtained from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

This was contained in a memo addressed to all permanent secretaries and made available to news correspondent in Abuja, Friday by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan.

Yemi-Esan noted that the Federal Government has now put in place a mechanism for routine verification of workers in the service in other to ascertain their “true” locations.

Recall that in August 2021, the Federal Government had raised the alarm over civil servants applying for study leave with admission letters obtained from suspicious foreign universities.

Moreso, in 2022, the government ordered that such workers be made to sign bonds in a bid to curtail the “abuse” of study leave by civil servants.

Addressing the new development together with the need for physical verification, the Head of Service in the memo said, “As part of the efforts to sustain the gains of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System , it has become imperative to emplace a mechanism for regular physical verification of officers in the service.

“To this end, you are directed to carry out physical verification exercise of all staff in your ministry to ascertain the location of each officer.”