Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has assured Ekiti workforce
that his administration would not renege on his promise of prompt
payment of workers’ salaries and emoluments.
Fayemi 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 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 a
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 a
picture 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.
