Johnkennedy Uzoma, Owerri
The Imo State Government under Chief Emeka Ihedioha has taken steps to clear the backlog of salary arrears running into billions of naira owed to about 30,000 pensioners in the state.
The government has contracted financial consultants that would help tackle the long existing problem and to pay pensioners.
Government’s steps are predicated on the fact that the previous government in the state did little or nothing to pay the pensioners huge arrears owed them for many years.
Addressing newsmen over the weekend in Owerri, Technical Adviser to Governor Ihedioha, Pascal Madu disclosed that government has already commenced data extraction from the files of civil servants in the state beginning from 1976 till date with a view to ascertaining the true records of every civil servant in the state.
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He said the essence of the exercise was to halt the practice whereby civil servants undergo excruciating agonies before accessing their pensions at retirement.
He hinted that the data extraction exercise would end on August 31, 2019 after which both the verification, biometric and payment of pensions would commence.
He said that government initiated the exercise mainly to ensure that issues of ghost workers are off the civil service system and that accurate date and calculation of pensioners in the state are carried out.
The Technical Adviser said that similar exercise at the 27 local government areas in the state would immediately take off as soon as it is completed at the state civil service level.