All the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Abia State Government have received their November 2018 salary with more than 90% already paid December 2018 salary. The remaining 10% are receiving December alerts even now.
Those are the people paid directly by the state government and as at today, December 21st 2018, we are not owing any of them outstanding salary.
All the workers in the state have been paid their 2017 leave allowance in full.
To support parastatal workers to celebrate this season happily, the state government made interventions to ensure that all of them received at least one month salary this December. Some of them like ASPIMSS and ASUBEB headquarters received that of 3 and 4 months, respectively.
State pensioners have received one month salary this December and we are preparing to pay them another month, pending when we will receive our Paris Club refund to enable us pay more to them. We have also enrolled our new pensioners into a contributory pension scheme to ensure that future pensioners do not suffer to receive their monthly payments, even as we work to clear all previous outstanding.
Let it be known that no worker that is paid directly by Abia State Government is owed any salary arrear. We are determined to support ailing parastatals pay their workers and also improve their revenue.
We do not see the sack or retrenchment of workers, as recommended by opposition politicians, as an appropriate option but will prefer to maintain our current status as the highest wage paying state per worker in the entire southeast region.
We have and shall continue to work on improving our revenue streams to manage our wage bill which remains the highest in the region.
Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to Abia workers.
Governor Ikpeazu you know, others are contesting to gamble with your destinies.
JOK
