The Cross River State Government has dismissed Wednesday’s protest by individuals demanding local government salaries, describing it as an attempt to force government to legitimize “irregular appointments” uncovered during an ongoing payroll sanitization exercise.

 

Reacting to the protest, the Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Chief Victor Felix Idem, said no amount of protest, intimidation or blackmail would compel the Governor Bassey Otu administration to place unauthorized persons on the public payroll.

 

Chief Idem explained that government had originally approved the recruitment of about 500 personnel into the Local Government Service. However, a verification exercise revealed that “several thousands of additional names had found their way into the system without the approval of government and completely outside the established recruitment process.”

 

“Those are the irregularities we are painstakingly addressing,” he said.

 

According to the Commissioner, the discovery prompted decisive action including the removal of officials linked to the exercise and the dissolution of the former leadership of the Local Government Service Commission.

 

To restore credibility, the administration engaged independent consultants and forensic payroll experts to audit the entire local government payroll.

 

“We brought in consultants and forensic experts because government has a sacred responsibility to protect public funds. Every name on the payroll was subjected to rigorous verification. Our goal is simple, to ensure that only duly recruited and lawfully documented employees are paid with taxpayers’ money,” Idem stated.

 

He insisted that all legitimately recruited LG workers have continued to receive salaries without interruption and that “there are no outstanding salaries owed to duly recruited local government workers.”

 

The Commissioner rejected claims that genuine employees were being owed 11 months salaries, calling it “deliberate misinformation intended to undermine the state’s ongoing public service reforms.”

 

“No amount of blackmail, street protest, media propaganda or emotional appeal will compel this administration to validate appointments that did not follow due process. Government cannot and will not reward irregularities,” he declared.

 

He added that the reforms are aimed at restoring order, discipline and fiscal responsibility to the Local Government Service, noting that “the era of indiscriminate recruitment, payroll manipulation and financial leakages is over in Cross River State.”

 

The protest, staged in Calabar on Wednesday, saw demonstrators demand enrolment on the state payroll and payment of accumulated salaries.

 

Government maintained that only appointments made with due authorization will qualify for remuneration from the public treasury.

 

Chief Idem assured that government would continue strengthening recruitment procedures and deploying technology-driven payroll systems to prevent future abuses.