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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Governor Alex Otti has explained why his administration has not paid pensioners and Local Government workers’ salaries since he assumed office on May 29.
In a release signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, Otti explained that the delay in payment of pension stemmed from the absence of a reliable data of pensioners in the state, hence the commencement of a verification exercise to enable government ascertain real pensioners, and differentiate them from ghost elements used to shortchange the state in the past.
“Its in the interest of genuine pensioners that a sanitized system/template is put in place to enable for a hitch-free and sustainable process of payment of their pensions”.
Ekeoma said although the Governor authorised the verification exercise, but he “reasoned that waiting for the conclusion of it before commencement of payment could be harmful to the pensioners as many of them are facing severe economic and health challenges that require some funds to take care of, hence his directive that, not minding the losses that might be incurred by government, the pensioners should be paid immediately while the verification exercise continues”.
On the payment of Local Government workers, Otti explained that government had earlier requested the LG Treasurers to provide their payment schedules, but unfortunately, they refused.
He said the request was premised on the discovery that majority of workers in the LGs were being shortchanged either by way of nonpayment of their salaries or by being paid half salary at the end of every month.
He said due to the fact there was no centralised and transparent payment process monitored by the state, those saddled with the responsibility of paying workers at the local government level resorted to all kinds of fraud, including denial of salaries to those they do not like.
The Governor disclosed that government equally discovered that those in charge of paying workers at the LGs, were using ghost workers to draw multiple salaries at the expense of genuine workers.
The release stated that now the LGAs have started cooperating, government has concluded plans to start paying LGA workers without further delay.
Otti reassured Abians, especially workers and pensioners that he would keep to his promise of clearing the salary and pension arrears in record time as promised during the campaigns, hence his determination to sanitize the system so as to set a corrupt-free template and ensure sustainability in the payment process.
On payment of subvention to agencies and parastatals, the statement disclosed that the State government had asked each of the affected institutions to sign an undertaken to utilise whatever subvention released to them specifically for payment of salaries.
“While many signed this undertaken, a few others who had the intention of doing something else with their funds refused to come and take the forms.
However, those who have not adhered to this directive are going to be compelled to do so”, after which they would receive their subventions.
