Zamfara state government has said that it will henceforth only recognize and collect staff payment vouchers prepared by directors from the state’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) for monthly salary payment.
This was announced by the state Head of Service, Alhaji Mujitaba Isah at a media briefing on Sunday at the end of the state Executive Council meeting.
He said the measure had become necessary in order to curtail the increasing number of ghost workers on the state’s payroll.
He said starting from the end of November, each director in all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be expected to draw an authentic list of all the staffs under him which would then be verified by the responsible permanent secretary and submitted to the state Ministry of Finance for payment.
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According to him, although the state government had earlier set up a staff verification committee to fish out ghost workers in the state and come up with a genuine staff list, the committee is yet to submit its report.
He further disclosed that the state government had met with the labour leaders and arrived at far-reaching decisions to improve government/workers relationship.
Workers in the state have been having a running battle with the state government over non-payment of promotion, pension and other arrears which led to an indefinite strike embarked by the workers about two months ago.
The strike was, however, conditionally suspended in October in order to give room for some elders of the state to find an amicable resolution, part of which was the Saturday’s meeting between the state government, the elders and the labour leaders.
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