The Abia State Government has declared that all unverified civil servants in the state will no longer receive salaries as of the end of November, News About Nigeria reports.
The announcement was made by the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, during a press briefing on Monday after the State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti.
The verification exercise, which commenced in July, was extended by two weeks to accommodate all workers. However, some employees have failed to participate in the exercise.
Commissioner Kanu mentioned that it is expected that all workers should have been verified by now.
“We expect that everybody that is a staff in the State ought to have been verified. We have a good number of people that haven’t done that. Some didn’t appear at all, some did and could not complete for various reasons”, he said.
He added that the government has set a target date for compliance and warned that unverified staff would no longer receive salaries.
Additionally, Kanu addressed the recent closure of 197 schools in the state, citing substandard curriculum, inadequate teaching quality, and environmental concerns.
The schools have been given an opportunity to meet the required standards for potential reopening.
The government has set a compliance target, and those schools committed to meeting the standards will be allowed to resume operations.
“So Government is carrying out reforms, Government set a certain standard. Government has a target base to ensure that all the schools in the State are complying but those in the private sector have not committed themselves in such a manner.
“The major reason the government decided to shut down those schools is principally because of substandard in their curriculum and quality of teachers and some of them because of environment.
“So that’s the reason we said those who are committed to changing the way they operate and can meet the standards that Government has set up, Government will allow them to get back to work.”
