Abia Governor, Otti, Sets Up Help Desk to Address Salary Arrears Complaints

Dr. Alex Otti, the Governor of Abia State, has taken a proactive step to address the longstanding issue of unpaid salaries and pension arrears, in line with his campaign promise. To fulfill this commitment of clearing a backlog of over 40 months of overdue salaries and pension arrears, his administration has established a dedicated help desk.

This help desk, located at the office of the Accountant-General within the Ministry of Finance, has been set up to facilitate the resolution of complaints and inquiries related to salary payments. Its primary aim is to address any discrepancies and concerns regarding the payment of salaries to genuine civil servants employed by the Abia State government.

It is worth noting that when Governor Otti assumed office, his administration was confronted with a daunting debt of over N42 billion, which included unpaid salaries and pension arrears that had accrued over the years due to negligence during the previous PDP-led administration.

Prince Okey Kanu, the Minister of Information, emphasized the need for this initiative, highlighting the dysfunctional payroll system that appeared to have been manipulated for fraudulent purposes, possibly to exploit and defraud hardworking civil servants under the previous administration.

“However, we are paying up the salary arrears as promised. At present, discussions are ongoing with the leadership of the pensioners, government is planning a bullet payment system, that will be very useful and we maintain that all outstanding arrears will be paid before the year runs out

“Regarding the discrepancies of some having received and others complaining not to have received their full salaries; it will be clear to state that, in the process of tidying up the confusion we met in the payroll system, it was discovered that some workers have issues with their account information, conflicting BVN information etc, some of these exception have been handled.

“More so, to finally put to rest the raging complaints and confusion being circulated on social media by the uninformed and exploited by the opposition, we decided to establish a Help Desk at the office of the Accountant General, Ministry of Finance, by Bank Road, Umuahia, to treat all inquiries regarding conflicts in receiving of all salaries as promised by this administration.

“The Office is open to everyone that has issues regarding payment of salaries and will provide answers to every questions in like manner.”