By Olusola Alatise
No fewer than 3000 civil servants in Ondo State are undergoing screening for document doctoring, age falsification and anomalies in salary payment.
The anomalies, The Hope learnt is to assist the government to know its exact wage bill and reconcile differences in financial account and other sundry details needed by government to curb waste within the system.
Investigation by our correspondents revealed that some workers still manipulate the system to receive double salaries and continue to draw their salaries even when they are above the statutory age of 60 years or 35 years in service.
It was also gathered that some of those who have retired or got another job within and outside the country still receive their salaries’ alerts monthly.
Mostly affected are those in the health sectors as many of them were said to have traveled abroad looking for greener pasture and still receiving their salaries.
It was learnt that the exercise which affected the core civil servants, has been extended to the local government workers as about 400 staff across the 18 councils have been invited to submit their original credentials.
The circular signed by Head of Administration, Ondo State Local Government Service Commission (Mgt Services), Ayodeji Ayeku, on behalf of the Permanent Secretary of the commission directed the affected staff to forward some documents to the office of the Permanent Secretary of the commission latest tomorrow.
The document reads in part: “I am directed to forward herewith a list of staff, who are required to offer clarification on some noticeable discrepancies with regard to their full names, ages, etc, as contained in their personnel records and what is on the Local Government Service Commission payment platform
“I specifically take this medium to request all officers listed in the attached schedule, who may wish to contest the piece of information/particulars indicated against their names, to obtain a duly certified copy of their bank verification data from their bankers and first leaving school certificate (Primary Six) endorsed by the Ondo State Ministry of Education and forwarded same to the office of the Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Local Government Service Commission on or before Tuesday November 9, 2021″ Read part of the circular.
Already, the Ondo State Government has inaugurated a seven-man committee to screen the affected staff so that normalcy will be restored in the government payroll.
Inaugurating the screening committee in her office last week, Secretary to the State Government, Princess Oladunni Odu said the screening is neither to witch hunt nor retrench any staff.
She charged them to do their job thoroughly and discreetly so as to prevent undue disturbances to government activities and workers
Odu said the era of workers dying as a result of struggling to get clarification or to appear for screening is gone, advising the committee to be fair and just in discharging their duties timely.
She said nonpayment of workers salary is becoming a sort of embarrassment to the Governor and believed that the sweat of a labourer should not dry on his face before getting his wages.
She enjoined the committee to look into the payroll of the government to ascertain the actual workers legitimately on the payroll and ensure that the state government is actually paying the required bill of workers in the state.