By Ogenyi Ogenyi,Uyo
Akwa Ibom State Government has said that gratuities are paid to retired workers and civil servants in the State on the basis of, ‘first come first serve’ and not favoritism.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on research and documentation, Dr. Essien Ndueso disclosed this in a radio programme in Uyo yesterday said the retirees who have carried out required documentations are not required to undergo any further procedure before receiving their retirement benefits.
It would be recalled that Governor Umo Eno recently released another N2.7bn for payment of gratuities to retired workers and leave grants for primary school teachers, making it a total of N14.7bn released for such purpose in the last nine months.
Ndueso, who described the disbursement as a welcome development, added that the Governor’s action is another justification that government is a continuum while the Governor was naturally inclined to catering for workers and needed no prompting to always set aside money every month for arrears.
He described as false assertions that the previous administration was not faithful to the payment of gratuities, saying that they paid pensions till date and made remarkable efforts in clearing backlogs of gratuities.
“When Mr Udom Emmanuel assumed office in 2015, one of his first actions was the clearing of 10years arrears of gratuity between 2001 and 2011 for local government workers and primary school teachers,” adding that Governor Eno is fulfilling his pledge to continue from where his predecessor stopped.
While also dismissing allegations of selective payment of gratuities, Ndueso admonished all retired workers to remain calm as the disbursement of funds released for gratuities are done in sequence.
“No one needs to go and lobby to be considered because the process of payments is clear and systematic.
“The payments for retired local government workers is handled by the Local Government Pensions Board while the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, and a special committee comprising stakeholders like retired teachers, government officials is saddled with payments for retired teachers.” He explained.
He maintained that since there is transparency in the process, those who retired later cannot expect to be paid before their older colleagues.
