Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti has directed the Accountant General of the State to commence the process for the payment of salaries to civil servants and Pensioners in the State.
Verified civil servants in the State are by the directive expected to recieve their April Salary this week while Pensioners would receive their June Salary before the end of next week.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu who disclosed this while briefing Journalists at the Government House, Umuahia on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting held today, also assured that backlog of the outstanding payments owed both civil servants and Pensioners would be “looked into”.
While restating the commitment of the present administration in offsetting all salary arrears before the end of this year, Prince Kanu
attributed the delays experience to the ongoing verification exercise embarked by the State government.
He also noted that workers in the Local Government system would soon receive their salaries as their verification exercise is almost concluded adding that they would be brought to the same page in terms of payment of salary and pension with workers in the State.
“You would recall that the during his campaign, the governor had promised that on or before the end of this year, all outstanding pensions will be paid. That plan is still on course.
“The Governor has also directed the Accountant General to ensure that April Salaries are paid civil servants during this week.
“For the outstanding months of April and May, the reason they were not paid was because of the verification exercise, so that of April is now concluded, that is why he (Gov) said they should be paid while we work on that of May. As soon as that is concluded, civil servants would also be paid.
“Same applies to Local Governments and the Judiciary. Their salaries are outstanding. The only thing holding back their salary is verification, once they corporate, they will be paid”, Prince Kanu stated.
The Commissioner used the forum to implore the authorities in the Local Government Service Commission and the Judiciary Service Commission to cooperate with the verification committee to ensure speedy conclusion of the excercise so that the workers at the Local Government level, teachers and judiciary staff would be paid alongside their counterparts.
The Commissioner said the State Executive Council resolved to enforce the instant law on buildings, a law that has been in existence since 1971.
He said; ” Alot of people have been breaching that extant law but going forward, government has decided that every building in the State before erection must be duely approved.
“The era of under the table deals where people collect bribes and give approvals indiscriminately is gone. Government will not hesitate going forward to demolish any building that did not meet these standards and ofcourse, those who are involved in breaching the process, would be prosecuted as well.
“These indiscriminate erection of buildings causes alot of havocs and in some instances erosion. Government wants to ensure there’s some kind of order in the way we erect buildings”.
Also speaking, the Attorney General of the state and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Ikechukwu Uwanna announced that the state government has concluded plans to commence the enforcement of extant law on building that has been in existence since 1971 which imposes severe sanction on building without approval.
He warned that henceforth any building on government’s acquired land,water ways or unauthorized places would be pulled down while the financier of such project would be prosecuted.
