Salary Payment: Government No More Father Christmas, Ikpeazu Tells Workers

Abia state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has said his administration is making efforts to settle the outstanding salaries of teachers and other workers in the state, saying he inherited the challenge from the past government.

This is even as he alleges that some parastatals in the state are engaging in the habit of over bloating their salaries, insisting that the government can no longer shoulder such huge responsibility.

Speaking on Channels TV breakfast show monitored by ABN TV on Wednesday, the Governor said 11 months into his administration, he paid the staff of the State University Teaching hospital a backlog covering the period.

“Some of them who were earning 500k per month went home with N5.5m that month, having spent 11 months at that time. So it’s an ongoing conversation.

“But my problem with that hospital is that they mismanage their wage bill system and bloated their wage bill system.

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“I have told them we commit N139m every month, yet they claim their revenue is N6m and we are saying that is not good enough.

“You must do something about your internally generated revenue while you merge with the subvention we give to you so that you can run,” he said.

The Governor also said the same thing is the narrative with Abia state polytechnic in Aba.

“At a point in that Polytechnic, we had 60 people manning two desks, 170 people working in the canteen and we are saying that government is not a father Christmas anymore,” he said.

While lamenting that times are difficult, the Governor said his administration is engaging in prudent management of the resources available to it.

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He assured that his administration is committed to ensuring that all parastatals and agencies who have challenges of salary payment are brought up to speed.