The Accountant General of Abia State, Dr. Njum Onyemenam, has explained the delay in salary disbursement to local government workers in the State.
Njum, who confirmed that her office is working diligently to address the challenges within the new Central Salary Payment System of the state government, assured that pending May Salary Arrears and omitted payments would be cleared by Weekend.
Addressing Journalists at Government House Umuahia, the Accountant General, accompanied by the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Uzor Nwachukwu, and the Director In-Charge of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Umeh Chiedozie, attributed several factors including, incorrect BVNs, duplicate account numbers and BVN as some issues responsible for the delay in workers salaries in the previous payments.
Among the issues identified were discrepancies within the payroll system, including the discovery of deceased workers’ names, incorrect BVNs, instances where two names shared the same BVN, problems with incomplete or excessive bank account numbers, challenges in processing payments through Microfinance banks, and issues concerning individuals who missed the latest government verification exercise and added that these factors collectively hindered the timely disbursement of salaries.
Njum advised the affected workers, particularly those within the Local Government Areas, to communicate with their Heads of Service or Treasurers to enable the officials channel the reports to the Office of the Accountant General for resolution.
She also appealed for patience from workers, emphasizing that Governor Alex Otti’s administration is actively working on a digitalized central salary payment platform.
The new payment platform according to her, aims to streamline and enhance the salary payment process,assuring that once fully operational ,the central payment,salary payments in the State will be seamless.
The Accountant General said aside the payment of outstanding arrears for May salaries, omitted and ratified salaries, would be disbursed this weekend adding that pensions for June and July for Local Government Areas will be paid out next week.
She reiterated the administration’s commitment to meeting the December 2023 deadline for clearing all outstanding salaries and emoluments owed to government workers from previous administrations.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Uzor Nwachukwu, in his contribution revealed that the government had compiled the list of all Traditional Rulers in the state which would be disclosed to the public soon and pointed out that the previously reported figure of about 700 traditional rulers in the state is inaccurate.
Nwachukwu said that the 5% stipend recently approved by Governor Alex Otti would be paid to Traditional Rulers by next week, starting with June and July.
