Abia govt to halt salaries for unverified employees by month-end

Abia State Government has announced that all unverified staff in the State Government will no longer receive salaries from the end of this month.

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed this on Monday while briefing the press and other government officials on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council (EXCO) meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti. He stated that it is expected that all workers in the State should have been verified by now, as the verification exercise was extended by two weeks.

Explaining further, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties, Dr Betty Emeka Obasi, noted that the verification exercise started in July this year, but there are still some workers who have yet to participate in the exercise. She mentioned that the names of the unverified staff have been posted in the MDAs, and they are expected to submit their documents to their heads of establishments, who would then hand them over to the verification committee.

“The verification started in September. We expect everybody who is a staff in the state should 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 the exercise for various reasons,” she said.

She advised that “as many as found their names there, ought to have gone back to their MDAs, as we said, take the documents backing their claims that they ought to have been verified, to their head of unit. The head of the unit should further send these documents to the body that is doing the verification.”

Dr Mrs Emeka-Obasi announced, “From this month, if you are unverified, you won’t get a salary,” stating, however, “Because we are a government that has a human face, we have decided to keep it open until the end of this year. You can still go back to your Ministry for corrections to be made.”

The Senior Special Assistant revealed that the government decided to remove unverified staff from the payroll because Governor Otti-led government is compassionate; otherwise, the affected staff should ordinarily be prosecuted for taking salaries without being duly recognized as bonafide workers of the Abia State Government.

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, also announced that the 197 schools recently shut down by the State Government have been given a window of opportunity to get their act together, adding that those that meet the guidelines may be reopened.

According to him, the government has set a target date for compliance, stressing that those committed to meeting the standard would be reopened.

“So, in carrying out reforms, the government has set certain standards and has a target base to ensure that all the schools in the state are complying, but those in the private sector have not committed themselves in such a manner. The government decided to shut down those schools because of substandard curriculum and quality of teachers, and some of them because of the environment. So, that’s the reason we said those who are committed to changing the way they operate and are able to meet the standards that the Government has set up, the Government will allow them to get back to work.”

Kanu said that the Abia State Government would soon launch a Whistleblower policy, which would mark a significant milestone in the State Government’s effort to do things differently.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Uzor Nwachukwu, said that the LGA Mayors would soon be sworn in within the week and expressed his hope that with the coming on board of these Mayors, the grassroots would begin to witness more development as funds meant for the Local Councils would be used to work for them.

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