Governor Alex Otti says Abia saved N220 million on monthly wage bills through the Abia government’s newly introduced unified payment system, saving N220 million on monthly wage bills.

This is contained in a press statement on Monday in Umuahia by his chief press secretary Kazie Uko.

It stated that the development was part of the outcome of the ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers, geared towards weeding out ghost workers.

The statement revealed that the government’s current payment system helped identify 2,300 ghost workers in Abia’s workforce. It stated that the verification exercise was ongoing and expressed the government’s hope of making more savings.

“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners. No fewer than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system, and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise,” the statement explained.

The Abia government added that in line with Mr Otti’s directive on payment of salary arrears, civil servants had received their April salaries unpaid by ex-Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration.

The statement said June pensions had also been paid to retirees.

According to the Abia government, local government staff, yet to receive their June salaries owing to their failure to submit a verified payment schedule, will be paid this week.

(NAN)