Politics
Gov Otti orders payment of all salary arrears owed to Abia workers within one year
Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti has directed the state accountant- general to commence immediate payment of all outstanding monthly salary arrears owed to staff of Government Agencies and Tertiary Institutions by the immediate-past administration, from this week, as a measure to bring those lingering issues to an end.
The Accountant General was further mandated to meet with Heads of state Tertiary institutions to harmonize their overhead expenditure needs in order for the government to tackle them accordingly.
The cumulative sum of N18billion is to be cleared in tranches at N1.5BILLION per month.
Gov. Otti announced these decisive steps while addressing the longstanding issues of monthly salary payments at his recent meeting with Professor Onyemachi Ogbulu, the Vice Chancellor of Abia state University, Uturu (ABSU), and members of the University’s Governing Council geared towards resolving their financial concerns.
During the meeting, it was confirmed that all the Staff of Abia State University, both verified and unverified, have been paid their salaries up to June, 2024 as directed by the Governor.
Governor Otti further directed the verification team to relocate to Abia State University to conclude the verification exercise within the week to ensure the seamless payment of salaries without delay or omission of names of staff of the University.
At the meeting, the Governor reassured the Management, Senate and Staff of the University of his commitment to pay all outstanding arrears of salaries owed by the immediate past administration and informed them that a formula has been worked out by his Government to offset the N18 billion Salary Arrears in installments.
He reiterated his government’s resolve to implement the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and allayed the fears of the University Management on the TSA model.
Gov Otti directed the Vice Chancellor to take control and resolve all lingering issues and complaints against the Abia State University Micro Finance Bank to ensure effective service delivery.
The Governor urged the University Management to continually engage with his team to resolve any grey areas. The Accountant General clarified that No ABSU staff is being short-paid but that the State is applying the proper tax codes.
Confirming these directives of the governor at an interactive session with Journalists in the Government House, Umuahia, the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu noted that Government is committed to offsetting all outstanding salary arrears owed various Government Agencies and tertiary institutions in the state.
He declared that the payments would commence in August, 2024 with N1.5 billion disbursed monthly over the next 12 months.
“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 should relocated to Abia State University to conclude all outstanding issues of verification of staff “, Prince Kanu stated.
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.
According to Kanu,”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”.
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.
On the “Light- Up Abia Initiative”, the Commissioner said the recently commissioned JAAC building has been illuminated as part of the initiative, adding that the programme has also been extended to Abia State University, to enhance security for students and staff of the institution.
As the Commissioner put it, “ efforts are underway to extend the initiative to communities outside the state capital and Aba metropolis, with several areas, including parts of Arochukwu and Isieketa in Aba, now connected to the 33KVA power line.”
He disclosed that the Governor would visit Arochukwu this week Saturday, July 27, to commission various projects executed by the Mayor of Arochukwu LGA, Chief Joe Ezearu.
Following this development, he announced that the state government has cancelled this week’s environmental sanitation exercise to allow citizens travel freely to Arochukwu to grace the occasion.
Contributing, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Mike Akpara enumerated all the government agencies and tertiary institutions being owed the varying amounts and periods of non-payments, including the Abia state University Ututru, College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, Health Management Board and others.
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.
He further noted that the directives of the governor to defray salaries of both verified and unverified staff of ABSU has been done. He hinted that some of the missing names have been identified and treated accordingly.
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 last 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 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.