From Umuahia, Abia State
The Transition Committee Chairman of Aba North local council, Hon. Good luck Amaefula has lauded Gov. Theodore Orji over the introduction of the biometric data capturing system in the 17 councils of the state.
In a chat with journalists in Aba, the chairman said the measure has brought sanity to the local government system in the state, stressing that it has helped to tackle the issue of ghost workers to a large extent.
The governor insisted that the TC Chairmen must implement the measure in the payment of salaries.
“There are many workers of the local government who do not come work but collects salaries at the end of the month. It was this bad. Even with the introduction of biometric system, a worker will just come to work in the morning, log in and disappear. But with the rule of logging in and out daily, you must achieve 50% attendance before you are paid. The sanity brought sanity and freed fund for other development projects. Government does not exist to pay only salaries, particularly to those who do not work,” he said.
On the issue of claims by revenue staff of the council that they should be exempted from the biometric system, Amaefula further said; “What revenue do they generate? You will go to a revenue department, but for month to month, they wouldn’t return a dime to the council purse. Go to their office, you will only see two or three persons. Other have gone to their private businesses, we cannot continue to operate in this way. This is why we told them to start to log in and out. Let’s monitor those who are the real workers.”
Amaefula enjoined residents of the council to support government’s efforts to give a facelift to the city of Aba. He also confirmed the governor’s promise of rehabilitating the roads as soon as the rains subside.
