Against the backdrop of unpaid gratuity to senior citizens of the state and retirees, especially between 2014, 2015, 2016, to date, Joseph Adie, Cross River State accountant general, weekend, said allocation from the Federation Account to the state was not enough to pay workers’ salaries.
Adie told BusinessDay in an interview that the highest allocation, which comes to the state, was N3 billion, sometimes, N1.1 billion and N1 billion.
“I am sure you will be surprised that even those states that have the highest allocation, you see that they owe pensions, they are not making effort to pay, but we have tried, we are paying. In fact, at a point we have been setting aside N200 million every month,” he said.
On the alleged demand by some of his staff who ask for N200,000 before processing their papers for their gratuities, he said, “Well, I want to assure that in my office here, nobody has told me that there is the demand to pensioners that they should pay anything, not even a dime before they get paid.
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“It is a very grievous matter to ask retirees and pensioners to begin to pay monies for their gratuities or whatever; it is an act of wickedness. In a situation like this, I must confess to you that I am not aware of that type of demand from anywhere, and I will be the last person to be a partaker.
“As we speak, we have cleared 2013, and we have paid 2014, and have paid up to February.”
On why some persons from 2016 and 2017 have gotten their gratuities paid, he said, “Yes, that comes in with the express permission from the governor. You know some people have health issues, others have spinal cord problem. In cases like this, I get my authorities from the governor. There are two on the line now if he approves and there are no funds, they are considered special cases.”
Some groups of retired permanent secretaries and some civil servants in the state who do not want the mention of their names in print for fear of sanction had alleged that some staff from the accountant general office demands N200,000 before they get their gratuities paid.
They have also completed arrangements to drag the accountant general and the state government to National Industrial Court Calabar for refusing to pay them their entitlements.
