Abia State government have said that it is making frantic efforts to offset gratuities owed pensioners and also revealed that it is not in salary arrears.

 

Abia State Commissioner for Finance , Dr. Aham Uko who dropped the hint on Friday while speaking on Vision Africa Radio platform “Issues”, said plans are underway to address complaints regarding payment of salaries of teachers in Junior section of Primary School and among local Government council workers even as this sectors are not in the exclusive reserve of the state government.

 

Abia State Commissioner for Finance disclosed that the local government receive their money directly from the federation account, hence is not the responsibility of the state to pay salaries of their workers , adding that soon the state government will look into various complaints of half salaries paid to workers with a view to finding a lasting solution to the agitations.

 

Going forward, Uko said the state government came up with a restructured pattern in payment of salaries so as to reduce duplication arising from irregular names, noting that government also came up with the idea of using BVN to pay salaries, informing further that the exercise has paid off as 2,843 irregular names have been discovered resulting to recovery of huge sum of money.

 

On payment of Pensions, Dr. Uko, said Governor Ikpeazu directed that pensioners should be treated with dignity which is why in carrying out the mandate , the Ministry embarked on capturing of pensioners in a bid to discover those who ought to have retired but are still in active service.

 

Dr. Uko pointed that there are complaints in handling pensioners in the state, which has caused workers due for retirement to falsify their retirement age, adding that as a way of solving this, government has insisted that certain categories of pensioners whose pensions are high, be tweaked so that others who earn less can also be integrated.

 

While speaking on the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the economy of the state, Dr. Uko stated that the Governor had long directed that the finance of the state be properly managed without relegating any worker to the background, regardless of the fact the money received from the federal government is low.

 

He said Abia State has no issues in payment of salaries of workers and pensioners in the state just as he reiterating that the State government in collaboration with the Abia state House of Assembly is reviewing the system of Internally Generated Revenue collection, assuring that in the coming months, IGR will be paid into a single treasury for accountability.

 

The Finance Commissioner maintained that the Governor has managed the money accrue to the state this pandemic period while also making sure that there is food on the tables of Abians.