The automation of salaries of Imo civil servants which was projected to facilitate the salary payment system of the state is said to have caused more havoc to most civil servants, months after its commencement.
Civil servants were promised that as soon as their capturing was concluded and the salary payment system automated, they will simultaneously receive their salaries every month at the click a button, meaning that disparity in payment and receipt of salaries will be a thing of the past.
The capturing and automation process was given as an excuse for the delay in payment of workers’ salaries for months. Uzodimma has promised that the process will become seamless as soon as the automation was concluded.
Meanwhile, months after perceived conclusion of the process, Imo civil servants now fear that they may have been thrown out from frying pan into the fire.
They say the current disparity in payment of salaries has never been witnessed in the history of the state. A situation where some people are owed some months arrears of salary, while others have been paid up to date and some have received unspecified advance payments.
There is also the case of some workers’ salaries being cut by indiscriminate huge amount of money, while money is also indiscriminately added to that of others without any justifiable reasons. Many have described it as an error of a hasty, unplanned and fraudulent system.
Many civil servants are of the opinion that quarks and unprofessional hands are being used to process the so called automation, reason it has continued to be given as excuse for owing some workers many months after the system commenced.
Some civil and public servants who spoke to News Echo on condition of anonymity decried a situation where their money now come in form of transfers, most times without specifying the purpose or the month paid.
Apart from those who have been owed up to eight months since the inception of this administration, some who have now been paid some months, a new twist has been added to the drama.
There are some who were being paid, having been captured in the automation process, but who did not receive July salaries, even when others in their ministries, departments and agencies received.
The concerned workers said they are expecting that the state government should do all it takes to ratify the situation and put a stop to the sufferings of Imo workers who were promised “shared prosperity”.
They enthused that salary automation should stop being a curse to them, but rather bring the Eldorado in the salary payment system of the state that was greatly touted by the state governor.
