The Cross River State Government has restated its commitment to work out modalities that are geared towards improving the welfare of Local Government Pensioners in the State NEGROIDHAVEN has garnered.
The Government's position was made known when the Association of Local Government Pensioners, Cross River State Chapter paid a courtesy call to the Commissioner For Local Government Affairs, Hon. Stella Odey in her office in Calabar.
Speaking during the visit, Hon. Odey stated that the Governor of Cross River State Sir.( Prof). Ben Ayade is compassionate about the welfare of Pensioners and has demonstrated his deep interest for Pensioners through the regular payment of their monthly pensions.
"Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade is a listening Governor, your needs are the Governor's priority, we must reciprocate the services you rendered by giving you whatever you are due", Odey said.
The Commissioner informed that the Governor had earlier approved and implemented the recommendations of secondment of Principal Officers to Pensions Board for effective service delivery.
She further commended the leadership of the Association for their resilience, support and provision of data and hinted that the automation of Pension would commence soon for accuracy of records while revealing that plans are underway to put in place a machinery that would track pending gratuities.
Earlier, the Chairman, Association of Cross River State Local Government Pensioners, Comrade Bassey Okosi expressed gratitude to the Commissioner for heeding to the suggestions that were presented to her in favour of the Association.
Comrade. Okosi revealed that upon the instructions of the Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu, to provide data on the liabilities of outstanding gratuities by line MDAs, the Association took it upon itself to carry out the task of collating and compiling data for onward submission to the Governor.
The Association Chairman appealed to the State Government to re-address the issues of Pensioners who were erroneously omitted from the payroll during the 2016 personal audit conducted by consultants. He further pledged the Association's support to the Commissioner and the Ministry.
Highpoint of the visit was the presentation of report/pension liabilities to the Commissioner for onward delivery to the State Governor.
