Watching television during working hours has been banned in the offices of civil servants in Ondo state. The ban was called for in a circular that was issued by Ajose Ikudehinbu, the Head of Service on October 20th, 2009. Apart from issuing the ban on television viewing in government offices, the circular also stressed all heads of departments, permanent secretaries and commissioners to enforce the directive right away. Also, the circular announced the ban of using computers in government offices for entertainment purposes. The Federal Government has already issued a ban on its workers from watching TV during office hours in August.
The Head of Service said that the situation was such that some regular visitors to the ministries and departments joined in watching TV programmes and continued to do so ‘even after the close of work’. Mr Ikudehinbu also stated that the ban comes as a result of finding that television in government offices distracted the civil servants, thereby leading to low productivity. The heads of departments were also directed to withdraw all of the TV sets returned and set aside in their offices.
