Ekiti to decentralise state, LG workers’ payments

Ekiti State Government has hinted that it
may stop the central payment of state and
local government workers’ salaries, saying
local governments will be encouraged to
pay their workers.
Governor Ayodele Fayose spoke in Ado Ekiti,
the state capital, during a meeting with
directors of finance and accounts, directors
of administration, chief internal auditors
and others from across ministries,
departments and agencies in the state.
Fayose, in a statement by his Chief Press
Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in Ado Ekiti on
Sunday, also warned public servants
against signing documents without
thoroughly going through them.
According to him, any negative fallout from
a signed document would be blamed on any
officer that signed it.
The meeting was convened to find solutions
to the problems associated with generating
wholesome nominal and pay rolls by MDAs
in the state, the statement added.
The governor frowned on a situation where
people, who had left the service or died,
still had their names on the nominal roll.
“Why should we be spending our scarce
resources wastefully? We are no longer
going to tolerate the issue of buck passing,
where someone will claim he is not the one
that generates the nominal roll and so does
not properly go through it before preparing
the pay roll.
“Henceforth, the nominal and pay rolls must
be properly scrutinised by the internal
auditors before being signed. The system
has adequate checks and balances already
in place and if not for collusion by
concerned public servants, no sharp
practices could take place.
“It is advisable that every officer properly
goes through any document before signing
such, as the person who endorses any
document is going to be held responsible in
case of any issue,” he said.
The governor, after listening to complaints
by internal auditors that they did not have
computers to be able to verify the soft
copies of pay rolls sent to them from the
Accountant-General Office, directed that all
the officers should by next week be sent on
computer training and afterwards be
provided with personal computers.
Earlier, the Deputy Governor, Dr Kolapo
Olusola, said in the course of staff
verification conducted last year, a lot of
anomalies were discovered in the system.
He listed the sharp practices to include
over-payment, under-payment, paying dead
or retired officers, over-deductions, illegal
promotion, among others.