Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Commissioner for Finance, Abia State, Mr Mike Akpara, has re-assured that the December deadline earlier set by Gov. Alex Otti for the liquidation of accumulated salaries of Abia workers, remained sacrosanct.
This as the Commissioner disclosed that Otti’s administration inherited N50 billion debt of salary arrears from Ex-Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s Government.
Ikengaonline had reported that Gov. Otti, during his inaugural speech, revealed that he met over N200 billion debt.
The Commissioner who addressed the press after his inauguration in Umuahia as he was outside the country when his colleagues were sworn in, said that welfare of workers would remain a priority under the current administration in the state.
Mr Akpara who said that Gov. Otti would not renege in any of his campaign promises, urged workers in the state to reciprocate the gesture with dedication to duty and diligence.
“We are telling Abia people that the promise we made to them, saying that on or before the 31st of December, stories of the arrears of salaries will be a bygone issue and it is going to be sacrosanct and we will deal with it as expected of us.
“Pensioners will be paid, gratuity will be paid, salaries will be paid when due, and other things that are due to Abians as pertaining to dividends of democracy will definitely come to them.
“Let’s just be patient. This rot was done in not less than 24 years, so it is not going to be something that will be freed up in the next two months.
“But with time, with God on our side, with the zeal in us, I am assuring Abia people that they will be taken care of, the good days are coming.”
On the ongoing verification of workers, the Finance Commissioner explained that it had become expedient to clean up the rot in the system.
He equally noted that Otti now ensures that all public servants including core and non-core civil servants get paid at the same time without unnecessary discriminations introduced by the immediate-past administration.
“We came with several manifestoes and one of them being to ensure that the Abia workforce is taken care of.
“His Excellency has abolished core and non-core staff in the civil service.
“There is no core or non-core staff any more. What it means is that everyone is equal and a labourer should receive his pay.
“And to that effect, we are doing this harmonisation and regularisation, making sure that we pay the genuine workers.
“There are some people that do not come to work but they collect salaries at the end of the month.There are some people that put in fictitious names to collect salaries.
“This is not going to continue to happen and that is exactly why it is very rigorous.
“We are just taking these pains to make sure we weed out all those bad eggs.
“And as soon as it is done, things will begin to work for us seamlessly,” Akpara said.
On delays in some workers getting paid on time he said that the administration had deployed a salary payment Application (App) system, which would help to eliminate the current hiccups being encountered in salary payment.
He attributed the problem associated with the current salary payment to the refusal by Ikpeazu’s government to adopt the App for salary payment.
“Like they always say, Rome was not built in a day. It is just going to be a systematic thing.
“It might interest you to know that even the people managing the salary payment App said they even told the out-gone government to apply the App for paying other workers.
“They refused because a lot of people are hiding certain things.
“There are skeletons in their cupboards and that is the reason we are doing this harmonisation and verification.
“We want to make sure we remove all those ghost workers,” he said.
According to him, a good progress is being made on the salary payment issue.
He, therefore, appealed to Abia workers to exercise patience with the Otti-led government.
Akpara said that all the struggles by Otti for the Abia top job were to come and serve and rebuild the state.
“And we have been rendering service.
“We insisted that Abia must change and for that reason, we fought this battle for over eight years.
“And to God be the glory, we were able to capture the seat of power, so we are poised to rebuild infrastructure in the state.
“Things will definitely change for Abia. Infrastructure will be taken care of. As we speak, it’s like the only working hospital in the state is the Federal Medical Centre.”
