July 18, 2023

Abia government says it has saved N220 million on monthly wage bill through its newly introduced unified payment system.

This is contained in a statement on Monday in Umuahia by Mr. Kazie Uko, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.

It stated that the development was part of the outcome of the ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers, geared towards weeding out ghost workers.

The statement revealed that current payment system used by the government had helped in the identification of 2,300 ghost workers in the state’s workforce.

It stated that the verification exercise was ongoing and expressed the government’s hope of making more savings.

“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.

“No fewer than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise,” the statement said.

It stated that in line with Gov. Alex Otti’s directive on payment of salary arrears, civil servants had been paid their April salary arrears unpaid by the immediate past administration.

The statement said June pensions had also been paid to retirees.

According to Uko, local government staff, who were skipped during the payment of June salaries owing to their failure to submit verified payment schedule, will be paid this week.