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| ROCHAS |
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha says he owes no civil servant in Imo State a dime as he has paid all their salaries.
Okorocha who spoke to journalists in Owerri said he even paid ghost workers that are replete in the State workforce. He also said at no time he wanted to concession state owned government parastatals to private entrepreneurs stating that he only wanted private hands to oversee the managment of such parastatals and agencies.
The Governor had earlier in the week announced the payment of N10 billion naira to workers in the health sector. Some workers however claimed they were issued pay off forms to sign as a basis to collect their salary arrears. This generated heated controversy between the workers and the State Government. Most of the workers were said to have refused to sign the pay off forms.
The Imo State Government and its workforce have been at loggerheads over unresolved issues bordering on non- payment of salaries. The Government insists that the State workforce is over- bloated, riddled with ghost workers who collect pay without offering services and largely unproductive.
Imo State has been hit by a drop in funds from the Federation Account and low Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) in recent times. It received a lifeline of N26 billion naira from the bail- out funds released to cash strapped States in Nigeria from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay workers outstanding salaries.
The State has been hit by cash crunch and a biting economy in the last seven months since the issue of workers salaries became a ding- dong matter between government and labour.
A former governorship candidate of the opposition PDP in Imo State and former Deputy Speaker, Federal House of Representatives, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha had accused the APC led State government of insensitivity to plight of workers by using N600 million naria to decorate the state capital, Owerri for the yuletide celebrations.
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