Imo State Accountant General, Mr Donald Igbo, has raised the alarm over what he described as bloated salaries paid to some ministries in the state by the immediate past government of Rochas Okorocha.
Addressing newsmen on Thursday in Owerri, Igbo noted that the discovery was made when the team of the present administration dug into the 70/100 percent arrangement reached sometime ago by Okorocha’s administration and the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) on the modalities for promptly payment of workers’ salary on April 17, 2018.
According to him, some of the ministries in the guise of receiving the 70 percent salary structure actually got 200 percent as their salary.
Igbo explained that when he inquired to know why such ministries were being preferentially paid that amount, he was shocked to hear that the salary was a special package approved for them by the immediate past governor.
According to him, “Some ministries brought in certain things not approved in the salary structure. Some claimed something personally was approved for them, some of the people were having 200 percent as their salary.”
Further reacting on the 70 percent paid to the state civil servants, Igbo said: “What they are being paid as 70 percent was not, somebody who was supposed to get N20, 203 under the 70 percent agreement now gets N23,203; you can see the difference.”
He further claimed that the salary structure of the past administration from level one to six in some ministries got 115 percent instead of what was in the NLC-state government agreement.
He, however, promised that Governor Emeka Ihedioha would pay the 100 percent promised the state workers during his campaign.
He urged them to “remain patient pending when the committee set up to harmonise the salary structures might have finished its job.”
Igbo urged the people to disregard the media reports that Ihedioha had settled to pay the workers the 70 percent paid by the last administration.
