The 100 days in office of the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma has offered him chance to speak on his achievements. In his broadcast to mark the 100days in office, Uzodinma used the opportunity among other things to explain delay in payment of salaries.
According to him, “A crucial look at Salary management in the state revealed some startling trends that has consistently hemorrhaged our common treasury.
Some glaring mismatch discovered amply proves that the state salary regime is fraught with corrupt manipulations
I found it curious that a state with 56,000 workers (both state and LGA) only captured 17, 000 persons in the income tax otherwise known as Pay as you Earn (PAYE)
More mesmerizing is the fact that the nominal roll of Pensioners have stood at 30,000 for ten years now. This will mean that there has been no retirements in the last 10 years and no Pensioner has died either.
“These are discoveries that clearly showcase sharp practices in the state payroll system”.
The absence of a BVN security in payment of salaries is yet another source of fraud. It is common knowledge that in this digital age, BVN is a necessary component of salary payments. Quite instructively most of the payroll fraud was committed through multiple entries of the same BVN for different names on the payroll. It was incredible to discover that some people earned salaries as civil servants and at the same time earned pension as Pensioners. Indeed what we discovered in the process of cross checking BVNs against names on the payroll were truly saddening.
I appeal to our people to understand that if there are temporary delays in payment of salaries it is never for lack of funds but because we are determined to stop the payroll cabal from fleecing our commonwealth.
