Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi on Tuesday said the arrears of salaries and gratuity of workers and pensioners since 2015 has amounted to N52Billion. He added that he would try to defray all not minding that they were owed by the last administration.
The governor however assured Ekiti workforce that his administration would not renege on his promise of prompt payment of workers’ salaries and emoluments.
The governor spoke on Monday at an interactive session with Ekiti workers at the State Secretariat Ground in Ado-Ekiti. He said monthly allocation of about N5.2Billion accruable to both state and local government was not enough to defray all the debt in one swoop.
Fayemi, who was applauded by workers when he successfully pre-empted the workers concerning their expectations of government said he would try as much as possible to meet those things that workers were desirous of despite the lean purse of government. He urged workers to give him time to address some of their needs immediately while others would come later.
He explained that his administration had ensured the sanctity of the civil service by ensuring that all appointments from the least to the position of permanent secretaries were based on merit.
According to the governor, “We have tried within the limited resources available to our state not to miss payment of salaries as and when due. We’ve tried to restore to the best of our own ability and commitment to the restoration of Ekiti values that meritocracy should define our Civil service and those who have been appointed either as permanent secretaries, General Managers and Executive Secretaries, there is none of them that can say I became this because I went to Governor Fayemi’s office and he likes my face so I was promoted to become Permanent Secretary. Not in this administration.
They all went through a process starting with an examination and then rigorous interview and it is the best of the best that emerged as Permanent Secretaries and we are determined to continue that in our civil service transformation programme.
“I believe that there are things we can address in the immediate, I believe we can address the immediate promotion, and what do I mean by immediate promotion because I don’t want any confusion. There are promotions that have been done that are notional; there are promotions that are due now, under the Fayemi administration, not the one due before.
I want to deal with the one that are due under me now and you will get the one that you are owed too but not immediately.
“The promotion that you are owed in 2015 to 2017 is N4Billion while for the local government service is N488million. If you look at what we owe you in 2019, which is about N705million, that is the one that I say I want to try and clear. The 2015 to 2017 notional promotion arrears would be defrayed in installments.
“I will not bore you with financial situation in the state, but I have a responsibility to make sure that whatever we do, we must not hurt the collective in the attempt to satisfy a critical component of our population, and you are the critical component. So we are going to take a lot of what we are confronted with in phases because we don’t have the resources and you know deep inside you that we don’t have money to clear everything that we owe at a go unless you want to deceive yourself you know.
“On salary arrears, you know I promised you when I was campaigning, that within one year we would clear the arrears. That promise still stands to a large extent and before coming here, I asked for a compilation again both at the level of the civil service where you are owed about three months and the local government, six months. We are still very committed to defraying this, it is a tough challenge but we would try and see what we can do about that.”
“On the leave bonus, leave bonus has not being paid since 2016 in the local government and in the civil service, since 2017; again, leave bonus alone comes to N6.4Billion. We know what comes into this state; we know how we deploy the resources. There is no way we can defray all of what we have spoken about in one fell swoop, in fact the figure, I don’t want to scare you, and I don’t want to scare myself, I was looking at the figure of what we are owing the public service collectively. We are owing you N57Billion. That is not just salary ;there is also gratuity, leave bonus and promotion. So that gives you picture of where the state stands and averagely on a monthly basis, about N3billion comes to the state and about 2.2 billion comes to the local government making N5.2billion every month. That gives you aMpicture of where Ekiti is”.
Earlier, the Head of Service, Mr. Ayodeji Ajayi, on behalf of Ekiti workers appreciated the governor for turning around the dignity of the public service within one year by restoring its eroded values and culture that was bastardized during the immediate past administration.
The Head of Service commended Governor Fayemi on his commitment to the welfare of Ekiti workers with improvement in the loan schemes and regular payment of salaries as and when due. In their goodwill messages, Chairmen of Boards and Parastatals in the state paid glowing tribute to Governor Fayemi on his efforts at repositioning the public service for improved service delivery.
The Chairman of Civil Service Commission, Sir Bunmi Famosaya (mni) appreciated Governor Fayemi, saying with prompt payment of salaries and other emoluments, workers are now able to take good care of themselves thereby improving their life expectancy.
