A whopping N200 million is what the Abia State Government has saved from its monthly wage bill following an ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers.
Kazie Uko, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, said the amount resulted from the purging of over 2,300 ghost workers from the state’s payroll.
Uko, in a statement on Monday, said the state Accountant General, Njum Onyemenam, revealed that the saving was made using a unified payment system.
Onyemenam confirmed that workers had received the payment of April salaries as well as June pensions to retirees.
The statement quoted her as having said after a meeting with Otti on Monday: “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.”
The Accountant General confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees.
Also, local government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, will receive their salaries this week, Onyemenam said.
