Abia State Government says it is committed to offsetting all outstanding salaries arrears owed to staff of various tertiary institutions in the state by the immediate past government which is estimated at about 18 billion naira.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu disclosed this while briefing news men on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti, informing that the payments would commence in August with 1.5 billion Naira to be disbursed monthly over the next 12 months.
Prince Kanu further disclosed that government has taken decisive steps to address the longstanding issues of monthly salary payment of staff of Abia State University with the recent meeting where the Governor met with the Vice Chancellor and members of the University’s Governing Council to discuss and resolve their financial concerns.
According to the Commissioner, the Governor during the meeting directed the Accountant General to ensure the immediate payment of all outstanding monthly salaries of ABSU staff, for both verified and unverified staff within the week, stating, “That meeting offered the Governor, the opportunity to bring those lingering issues to an end.
“In the course of the meeting, he directed the accountant general to ensure that within the week, all outstanding salaries are paid, and this will apply to both those that have been verified and those yet to be verified.
“The Governor directed that the verification team be relocated to Abia State University to conclude all outstanding issues of verification of staff.”
The Information boss while highlighting the Governor’s commitment to improving the welfare of the university’s staff, noted that the salaries for April, May, and June have already been paid.
“So there’s no gainsaying the fact the Governor is committed to enhancing the welfare of the university’s staff as never done before by previous administrations,” Prince Kanu pointed out.
He emphasized that Governor Otti in a bid to further enhance the operational efficiency of tertiary institutions across the state, also directed the Accountant General to meet with the heads of institutions to harmonize their overhead expenditure needs in order for the government to tackle them accordingly.
The Commissioner who also addressed the issue of security of lives and assets in the public schools across the state said Governor Otti mandated the Senior Special Adviser on Homeland Security to collaborate with the Ministry of Education to deploy homeland security personnel to provide round-the-clock security for all schools.
He pointed out that the initiative is part of government’s strategy to safeguard both lives and the huge investments it is making in the educational sector.
Contributing, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Mike Akpara clarified further on the exact amount of arrears of salaries owed tertiary institutions in the state, stating, “I want to clearly say that when my colleague, the Commissioner (fir Information) said that the total sum that was approved for repayment with respect to the salaries owed to workers in the past administration, he said about 18 billion, he is right but for clarity, I want to say that its seventeen billion, six hundred and twenty-nine million, seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand three hundred and forty two naira, nine kobo”
He also disclosed that the actual figure to be paid monthly to ABSU staff to clear the arrears is one billion, four hundred and sixty-nine million ,one hundred forty-seven thousand ,two hundred and seventy-eight naira, twenty kobo, noting that the directives of the governor to defray salaries of both verified and unverified staff of ABSU has been done whole the pockets of people missed out by omission would be taken care of as some of themselves have already been identified.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on media and publicity Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma while responding to a question on the incident that occured in Aba on Sunday, said that what the criminals are presently doing is to mop up arms while their attempt was rebuffed by security agents who successfully neutralized two of their members, regretting that some innocent passersby were unfortunately hit by stray bullets.
“It’s not that the criminals are allowed to have a free day, a lot of them are being captured, a lot of them are being picked up in from different places. There is a lot that government is doing to ensure the security of lives and property in the state. There are certain things you don’t disclose to the public. When you pick them up you carry secret investigation to ensure their collaborators and sponsors are brought to book.
“So government is not sleeping,there are lots of measures, intelligence gathering and other things which are not for public consumption,” Ekeoma stressed.
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