By Asare Asare
The Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Peter Odey, has explained that the ongoing comprehensive staff audit in the state civil service is the cause of the slight delay in the payment of January 2024 salaries to all.
In September 2023, during his media parley to mark 100 days in office, Governor Bassey Otu disclosed there was an “enormous wage bill despite a large number of retirements from the service.”
And when he swore in a new Head of Service, Innocent Eteng, a few weeks later, he charged him to conduct a major surgery on the staff strength and reposition the state civil service in line with global best practices.
The state government soon embarked on a comprehensive staff verification exercise where civil servants had to personally appear to fill forms.
A cross-section of workers on Thursday besieged the office of Secretary to the State Government, Prof Anthony Owan-Enoh, protesting the nonpayment of their January 2024 salaries.
Reacting to the protest, the state number two man explained that the state government has made significant progress in the staff audit and will, in no distant time, make its findings public.
Odey dismissed the protest, saying over 80% of workers in the state have, however, been paid their January 2024 salaries.
He said, “The seeming delay in the payment of some employees in the state civil service and local government, though regrettable, is informed by the painstaking effort to weed out duplicate entries following the reconciliation of cleared names from the relevant pay-rolling offices with the nominal roll.
“In the interim, the government appeals to the labour force to see this exercise as the birth pangs of a glorious future if we must have a state that we all desire.
“The Senator Bassey Otu-led administration remains committed to its People First Agenda and this can only be realised when all segments of the state make sacrifices and support the drive for a transparent and accountable system,” Odey stated.
He acknowledged that the state government is aware of the difficult times, and “assured that all those whose salaries have been delayed genuinely will be paid in no distant time.”
