By Ukongikwen Adie
The Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Rt. Hon. Peter Odey, has assured all civil servants and pensioners in the Cross River Civil Service of government’s commitment to the welfare of workers in the state NEGROIDHAVEN can report authoritatively.
Rt. Hon. Odey re-echoed the ‘People First’ mantra of His Excellency Bassey Otu, stating that the governor cannot withhold the salaries of the people he puts first.
Odey gave this assurance in a press briefing in his office today, Thursday, 15th February,2024. He also made it clear that the delay in salary payment for some civil servants was not a ‘non- payment of salaries: as some people claimed, but rather a verification exercise which is ongoing to check the constant expansion of the payroll despite the fact that people retire every day.
On the whole, two issues were raised during the press briefing. The first was to ascertain if pensioners were also involved in the verification exercise and the second was to know the duration of the exercise.
Concerning the first issue, Odey responded in the affirmative stating that from the findings, pensioners who have died still have relatives collecting their salaries. He equally highlighted cases of duplication of names of civil servants in more than one local government area and so on.
With regard to the second issue, the Deputy Governor said by next week (between February 19 and 23, 2024), the verification exercise would have been completed and all workers would be paid in full.
“I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to labour to be patient as this exercise is in the best interest of the workers and the State since it will ensure that the records are kept straight and the right thing is done”.
