Public servants in the state have been tasked to see the on-going personnel audit as their own by collaborating with government in weeding out miscreants from government payroll.
The State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Akan Okon, while addressing representatives of MDAs and LECs during a meeting at the Ministry of Finance headquarters, Uyo last Friday, said the essence of the meeting was to find out why some MDAs were yet to comply with the directive of submitting their new nominal roll according to specified format, with the view to forestalling delay in the payment of staff salary.
Mr. Okon expressed displeasure that out of over 100 MDAs,only about 61 have so far submitted their formatted nominal roll in spite of the long notification, urging them to take the assignment seriously as this would form the fulcrum for salary payment as well as the ongoing personnel audit.
According to him, “You must take ownership of this exercise, as government wants to ensure that when it is time to pay your salaries, there is money to pay, but if you allow the system to be porous,and money is paid to the wrong people, we may get to a stage where there will be no money to pay genuine workers.”
He asserted that following drastic decline in the State’s allocation from the federation account, Governor Udom Emmanuel administration being sensitive to the wellbeing of workers has taken steps to block fund leakages by reinforcing its war on ghost workers in order to secure funds to meet its obligations to workers of Akwa Ibom State.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Eme-ete Imuk said government was working hard to sanitize the workforce through the verification exercise.
She urged all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to submit both soft and hard copies of their Excel formatted nominal roll to facilitate the smooth conduct of the staff verification to ensure their inclusion in the new payroll system.
Some of the workers who spoke during the meeting lauded the state government for its concerted effort to bring reforms in order to sustain the public service, and pledged to support and cooperate with government to rebrand the system.
Also present at the meeting were the State Accountant-General, Mr. Linus Nkan and directors of the Ministry of Finance.
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