Blame MDAs For Your March Salary Delay – C-River Govt Tells Civil Servants

BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – Civil Servants in Cross River State may have to hold Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) responsible if their March salaries are delayed because of the poor compliance level with the existing Governor’s Executive Order.

Forefront News gathered there are strong indications that the State will witness a delay in payment of March 2024 salary due to the inability of most MDAs to do the needful and comply with the Order that seeks to sanitise their allegedly bloated payrolls

However, the State Head of Service, Dr Innocent Eteng told newsmen in Calabar that the delay in March salary payment would only affect workers in MDAs yet to submit their computerized nominal rolls to the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) as expressly directed by Governor Otu.

According to Dr Eteng, the Executive Order was enacted due to the discovery of serious payroll infractions that the present administration is bent on addressing to check the problem of ghost workers in the State service.

He expressed dismay that despite the state government’s effort at ensuring prompt payment of salaries, some criminally minded civil servants in the state are focused on circumventing payroll procedures just to line their private pockets with public funds.

Dr Eteng further lamented that the government’s good intentions of promoting workers’ welfare in keeping with Governor Otu’s People-First mantra appear to be a tale from the moonlight in the ears of some delinquent workers whose interest is to amass ill-gotten wealth at the expense of dedicated staff

The Head of Service however assured pensioners that their welfare as senior citizens would continue to receive utmost priority attention as they would not be affected by the Executive Order