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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Abia State has said it will stop the payment of all unverified staff in the government employ as from the end of November.
Commissioner for Information and Culture, Okey Kanu, who briefed newsmen on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti, stated that it was expected all workers in the state ought to have been verified by now having extended the verification exercise by two weeks.
The commissioner equally announced that the 197 schools recently shut down by the state government had been given a window of opportunity to get their acts together, adding that those that meet the guideline may be reopened.
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties, Betty Emeka Obasi, said although the verification exercise started in July, there were still some workers who were yet to participate in the exercise.
She said the names of the unverified staff had been put up in the MDAs notice boards, adding that they are expected to submit their documents to their heads of establishments, who would, in turn, hand the same over to the verification committee.
“We expect that everybody that is a staff in the state ought to have been verified. We have a good number of people that haven’t done that. Some didn’t appear at all, some did and could not complete for various reasons.”
She revealed that the government decided to stop at only yanking off the names of the unverified staff from the payroll without prosecuting them for taking salaries without being duly recognised as bonafide workers of Abia State Government because Governor Otti-led government is compassionate.
