No plans to cut salaries – Rivers govt

By  JIMITOTA ONOYUME & BRIGHT OGUNKILEDE

PORT HARCOURT— RIVERS State Government has denied allegation by some labour activists  that it was planning to cutsalaries of government workers in tertiary institutions in the state.

The state Head of Service, Mr. Samuel LongJohn,  said that the recent  salaryverification exercise that was carried out in the affected schools had nothing to do with salary cut, rather was part of measures to guard against irregularities.

He said it was discovered in the pay role of core civil servants in the state that some workers were getting salaries that they were not entitled to, adding thatthe essence of the verification exercise in the schools was to ensure that staff were paid what they should earn based  on their cadre.

“We are not reducing anybody’s salary, the exercise is to correct anomalies discovered in the system.  Salary structures are cadre-specific, while someallowances are mutually exclusive but we found out that some staff are paidsalaries and allowances they are not entitle to.”

He said those who wrote to the governor, alleging plan to cut their salarieswere probably not aware of the essence of the verification exercise and details of the meeting held with Bursars and Registrars of the schools.

He also said it was one of the issues at a recent meeting with the institutions that their payroll would be prepared by the Ministry of Finance as against thepractice where the schools forwarded their payroll to the Ministry of Financefor payment.

Culled: Vanguard