Few days after taking over the mantle of leadership, the Abia State Labour Party Chairman, Mr Ceekay Igara, has disclosed that the executive governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, inherited an empty treasury from the immediate past administration of Dr Okezie Ikpeazu.
Igara made the disclosure while speaking on issues of salary payment on Tuesday, June 6.
He further said governor that Gov. Otti is not relenting on his promise to pay backlogs of salaries and pensions including new ones and as at when due.
He however, stated that measures are currently being taken to correct the faulty foundations laid by the PDP government to ensure that the new government runs on a clean slate for the good of the entire Abians.
The state chairman, maintained that ghost workers and every other form of corruption, will not be allowed to strive in the current administration, assuring that all Abia workers will be paid their full salaries.
Igara who was responding to a question on why governor Alex Otti is yet to pay salaries as promised one week in office and ghost workers syndrome in the state civil service, clarified;
“We met an empty treasury. We are not reneging on the promises we made; the promises remain sacrosanct. Whatever His Excellency, Dr Alex Otti says, stands.
“Things were not in order. We are now trying to excavate, lay the foundation and we will get it right; salaries would be paid. We are putting in place platforms, processes that will solve all these problems left by the previous administration.
“We promised Abians that between now and the end of the year, that we will pay if not all, substantive.
“We need to guard against somethings like ghost workers. We need to put things in the right perspective and we will pay.
“We want to start on a new slate not on how the past government had run the system. Workers will be paid their salaries, they will not be paid half salaries as it were. We will do a total rejig and it cannot be done in a day.
“Non-payment of workers salary is a prelude to criminality. When you pay salaries as at when due, it will reduce the probability of stealing.”
“We have a very great deal of work to do but they are very surmountable” Igara said.
The chairman described ghost workers syndrome as a form of corruption that can easily be tackled, adding that governor Alex Otti’s government is already working to scrap ghost workers from the state’s workforce.