BY: Vitalis Ugoh, Calabar
The Cross River State government is to engage the services of the Department of State Services (DSS) to audit personnel in its payroll system as well as produce a holistic nominal roll for both in the state and local government.
Governor Bassey Otu, who disclosed this during a courtesy call on him by the leadership of the organized labour in the state.
He said he was shocked by the increase in the nominal roll after being briefed that over 40 percent of the work force had retired.
A statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Ogbeche, the governor said that the exercise which is to be conducted by the federal agency will help forestall all forms of irregularities noticed in the staff payroll system across board.
“We have resolved that everybody should go to the Department of State Services for verification and screening so that if your paper has some issues, from there you can go to court”.
“That will be the best for us because the exercise will ensure that biometrics and other necessary screening requirements are conducted to check all forms of irregularities and abnormalities in line with relevant civil service rules and labour laws. In the end, we will know the actual staff strength in Cross River.”
“Personnel audit has been a little bit of a tricky area. So, we need to put our heads together to produce a holistic payroll system, and I strongly solicit your maximum cooperation”.
“When I assumed office, I was informed that so many persons have retired, but when I now looked at the payroll, I saw even more staff than last month. I was wondering if so many have retired as recorded, why we should now have such a humongous number in the payroll with an attendant huge wage bill, the governor said”.
On the issue of employment, the governor said, “we are currently looking at the gap analysis which is why we had to suspend all forms of employment so that in the end government will only employ based on needs because with our scarce resources, we must spend it judiciously.”
Otu, who had earlier in a meeting with the staff promised to pay all promotion arrears of civil servants, also joined the labour centres in condemning the unnecessary engagement of consultants in the state payment system,
“I do not support consultancy services too much in governance except in key areas that we may have a bit of challenges.”
“The issue of paying money first to a consultant, who in turn pays to government, is uncalled for and must end,” the governor stressed.”
Speaking on subsidy removal and palliative plans by the government, he disclosed that, “I started the campaign for the removal of fuel subsidy since 2003 because it created a lot of briefcase millionaires in our society who did not work for anything but sit at the comfort of their homes to become millionaires.”
He expressed joy that President Bola Tinubu saw the need to sanitize the oil sector and deemed it necessary to remove fuel subsidy, adding that, “I know that each state has its own peculiarity that is why we need to synergize so that whatever palliative we put in place will be such that will mitigate and ameliorate the sufferings of our people.
“I know some states have proposed salaries increment which I am not against but my problem is the value such increment will have in the economy considering the fact that goods and services have already skyrocketed because of fuel hike occasioned by subsidy removal.”
“So, we need to properly work out a system that will be beneficial to all the citizenry, not only the civil servants because everyone bears this brunt”.
“I know that pains will come. That is why we are appealing to our people to be patient with us as we fashion out ways of mitigating the hardship”.
“We have to endure this pain in order for us to correct the error as well as build a sustainable economy for posterity,” the governor stated.
Earlier, the organized labour in a 21-point position paper presented to the governor and read by the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Olayi Gregory, solicited the consideration for promotion of teachers to Grade Level 17 as it is obtainable in the federal service to boost morale of teachers.
They also advised the governor to reduce the cost of governance by checking unnecessary waste, and should rather channel such resources to useful ventures as well as fashion out measures to bridge the gap between directors and permanent secretaries by approving Grade Level 17 for directors as applicable in other states.
