Ekiti to decentralise payment of State, LG workers’ salaries

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By; OLADELE ADEDAYO, Ado-Ekiti.
Indications have emerged that Ekiti State Government may stop the central payment of state and local government workers’ salaries as local governments will be encouraged to pay their staff at their own levels.
This hint was dropped by the State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose in Ado-Ekiti at the weekend during a meeting with Directors of Finance and Accounts, Directors of Administration, Chief Internal Auditors and others from across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state.
In a statement ‎in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, the governor also warned public servants against signing documents without thoroughly going through them.
According to the governor, any negative fall-out from any signed document would be borne by the officer who endorsed it.
The meeting was conveyed to find solutions to the problems associated with generating wholesome nominal and pay rolls by MDAs in the state‎.
According to the governor, the state government was unimpressed with the sharp practices by some officers in charge of generating the nominal and pay rolls in the state. He frowned at a situation whereby people that had left the service or are dead still had their names on the nominal roll.

“Also unfortunately, such names are still not removed when the pay roll is being prepared as well. Why should we be spending our scarce resources wastefully? We are no longer going to tolerate the issue of buck passing where someone would claim he is not the one that generates the nominal roll and so does not properly go through before preparing the pay roll.
“Henceforth too, the nominal and pay rolls must be properly scrutinized by the internal auditors before being signed. The system has adequate checks and balances already in place and if not for collusion by concerned public servants, no sharp practices could take place. It is advisable that every officer properly goes through any document before signing such, as the person who endorses any document is going to be held responsible in case of any trouble,”he said.
The governor,after listening to complaints by internal auditors that they did not have computers to be able to verify the soft copies of pay rolls sent to them‎ from the Accountant-General Office, directed that all the officers should by next week be sent on computer training and afterwards be provided with personal computers.
The governor also warned civil servants against playing politics, saying anybody interested in politics should resign from service.
Earlier, the Deputy Governor, Dr. Kolapo Olusola, said in the course of staff verification exercise conducted last year,a lot of anomalies were discovered in the system.
He listed the sharp practices to include over-payment, under-payment, paying dead or‎ retired officers, over-deductions, illegal promotion among others.
In his remarks, the Head of Service, Dr. Gbenga Faseluka, said there was no need for rivalry among officers in various cadres in the service.
He said the state was building a single service and urged officers to only complement one another and not engage in any unnecessary rivalry.

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