RSG Moves To Correct Omissions In Salary Chart

Omissions in the new salary chart based on the 70 percent implementation agreement entered into between labour and the state government will soon be corrected.        Rivers State Head of Service (HOS), Mrs. Esther Anucha made this known last week in her Office in Port Harcourt while receiving the report of a committee set up to correct the anomalies observed in the New Salary Chart.

She noted that since the implementation of 70 per cent agreement, her office had been inundated with complaints from Civil Servants on the omission of some allowances and grants in the salary chart compiled by an Accounting Consultant, Udensi and Co., stressing that with the completion of their assignment, anomalies observed in the chart would be properly addressed.

The Head of Service noted that the committee’s complain on the salary disparity existing in some sectors of the Civil Service would dampen the morale of workers, and expressed the hope that their recommendations would assist government in bridging the gap between the salaries of Health Workers and other civil servants.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Gift Ake said in the course of their study, it was observed that some departments in the Public Service, such as the state owned Tertiary Institutions had direct dealings with Zenith Bank in the computations of their salaries thereby usurping the functions of the Ministry of Finance, the appropriate authority in charge of such functions.

He therefore, advised government to issue a directive to such departments to follow due process and requested that salary print outs for one month be made available to the committee for further scrutiny.

The committee also recommended that pay slips be issued to Civil Servants to enable them know the components of their salaries and advised government to effect the payment of arrears of salary for February 2011, as well as the arrears of short payments occasioned by the omission of medical and leave grants to workers under the core civil service salary structure, explaining that all other sectors had been paid these components from March, 2011.

While lamenting the huge salary gap between the different sectors in the Civil and Public “Service, Mr. Ake, who is also the Permanent Secretary in the Establishment, Training and Pension Bureau, thanked the Head of Service for the opportunity given them to serve and expressed their readiness to continue to render diligent service.

Other members of the Committee included the Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare, Mr. Lambert Ekwueme, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Matters, Ms. Kadilo Brown, Director Treasury, Sir Dagogo Abere, Auditor in the Office of the Auditor General, Mr. Elias Akazua, Chairman of the State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Chief Chris Oruge, Chairman of the State Public Service Negotiating Council, Comrade Emecheta Chuku and Mr. Matthew Ogwuokwa who served as Secretary.