12th July, 2018
Ebonyi Government says it will pay the July 2018 salaries of its workers before the month’s 13th day in spite of states not receiving the federation allocation since June.
Chief Obinna Nwachukwu, the Commissioner for Finance made the disclosure on Thursday in Abakaliki while addressing newsmen.
Nwachukwu said that the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) quagmire in the country would not affect the payment.
He said it was the government’s policy to pay workers’ salaries before the 15th of every month but the July payment would be made earlier to buttress such commitment.
“The government discovered that July 15th fell on a Sunday and the governor insisted that the salaries be paid on or before the July 13.
“The governor directed that I and the accountant general of the state obtain loan from available sources to offset the salaries due to the plight of workers.
“This is because the federation allocation has not been accessed by any tier of government in the country since June,” he said.
The commissioner noted that the FACC meeting had not been held on three occasions it was scheduled since June, adding that the one fixed for July 10 could not also hold.
“The country will not collapse due to the FAAC quagmire as insinuated in several quarters but there are technical issues that need to be sorted by concerned authorities.
“Several economically viable states are owing workers’ salaries due to the quagmire but Ebonyi has vowed never to join the league of such states.
“This is why the governor instructed that we source for loan to pay the workers salaries and we will refund the loan once the allocations are released.
“I am optimistic that the technical issues surrounding the FAAC quagmire will be sorted and we assure the state’s workers that their welfare is paramount in our policies,” he said.
Nwachukwu noted that the state had received its certificate of contribution to 250 million dollars borrowed by the three tiers of government from the excess crude account and transferred to the sovereign wealth fund.
“Ebonyi Government and the 13 Local Government Areas (LGA) of the state duly contributed to the fund as the state contributed 1.37 million dollars, while the LGA’s contributed 754.2 million dollars.
“Ebonyi by God’s grace, has continually been in the forefront of the nation’s economic development as people now come to the state to copy its policies and programmes,” he said.