ABIA, JANUARY 18, 2017 – Abia State government said it has discovered 130 ghost primary school teachers in its pay roll even as teachers were reluctant to return to school after Christmas holidays.
The teachers insisted that they would be paid their arrears of salary which run between four to seven months.
The government also said that about 300 Local Government employees were discovered to have entered the service with fake certificates.
The State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Obinna Oriaku who disclosed this at the weekend, also said that 3000 staff of the LGA were absent at the biometric exercise where these discoveries were made.
Oriaku also spoke on the readiness of the government to commence disbursement of the N5.3 billion Paris Club refund money meant for arrears of workers’ salaries and pensioners.
According to him, the Auditor General of the Local Government has been mandated to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the disturbing menace of prevalent level of ghost workers in the State with a view to bringing the culprits to book.
He announced that the government has begun the process of disbursing the money just as organized labour in the State has called on the relevant banks to immediately pay out the money to workers and pensioners.
Oriaku said extra N700 million would be sourced to augment the N5.3 billion to help pay some months of arrears owed workers and pensioners.
According to the Abia State chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Uchenna Obigwe, the committee that handled the disbursement decided that primary school teachers, staff of Health Management Board, Staff of Abia State Polytechnic that are owed 11 months and staff of ASUBEB will be paid 2 months from the money.
He also announced that civil servants would be paid one month alongside their 2016 leave allowances. He said that Labour is pained by the hardship Abia workers are going through due to no fault of theirs.
The NLC chairman also urged the government to immediately commence disbursement of the money into the accounts of the workers and pensioners so that they could make use of the money to solve some their problems.
Enugu recruits 1000 teachers
Meantime, Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board(ENSUBEB), has released the list of 1000 newly engaged teachers out of the proposed 2000 billed for recruitment into primary schools in the state.
Chairman of ENSUBEB, Chief Ikeje Asogwa, explained that another list containing the names of a second batch of 1000 successful candidates who had undergone series of screening exercises would soon be released.
He also commended the governor for the release of the list of newly employed teachers, saying it was a most appropriate step taken to tackle the basic problem of education by starting at the primary school level, especially in these austere times.
