Steve Unegbu, Umuahia
The Abia state government said it has saved N220 million on monthly wage bill from the ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers in the state.
In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Abia State, Kazie Uko, the State Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam had made this known after a meeting with the State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, explained that the savings was made possible using a unified payment system.
According to him, the verification exercise was still ongoing and the government is optimistic of making more savings.
His words,” So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.
“Not less than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise” he said
Speaking further, she confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, the arrears of April salaries left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees had been paid last week.
She informed that local government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, would receive their salaries this week.
