"Pay Off" Forms Hit Imo Civil Service

Workers of the Imo State Civil Service may be spoiling for a showdown with the Imo State Government over what they described as “Pay off forms” issued to them as a condition to collect their salary arrears.

Some of the workers who spoke to INNONEWS said the forms, is a clear pay off, as it stated that those who are eligible to continue in the State civil workforce are those whose names will appear on the State workforce in January, 2016.

Labour leaders in the  in the State told them not to fill the forms until the State Government clearly defines its motive of issuing the forms. There was no independent confirmation of these claims.
At the State Secretariat in Owerri, our reporter observed that workers were in clusters discussing the development which attracted outrage from them. One of them who spoke on condition of anonymity claimed that the forms is a clear pay off issued to workers as the forms in part stated that the poor economy of the State was not able to absolve all workers.

There was no State government official to explain exactly what the forms were all about as there is no Commissioner or Special Adviser to speak on the matter.  Names of Commissioners and Special Advisers was only sent to the House of Assembly screening last week.

 However, last week, the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha announced that N10 billion naira has been released to offset workers salaries especially those in the health sector.  Those rendering community security services however lamented to this newspaper  that they were paid only a month salary in November and none is expected to come in December.

The Imo State government and workers have been at logger heads since the bail-out funds were released to the State in September, 2015.Some of the workers were owed  6 to 11 months in addition to plans by the State Government to concession most of the state ailing parastatals and agencies.

In October, 2015 the State Government rolled out a list of government owned parastatals that were due for concessionaire, a move which attracted outrage from labour leaders in the State. The authorities   consistently claimed that the workforce is over bloated and replete with ghost workers who collect monthly pay without offering services.

Imo State is a public service driven economy and has been badly hit by non -payment of monthly salaries for a period of 11 months which has led to cash crunch and a biting economy.