The Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello on Monday acknowledged the pains of the administration’s civil service reforms.
He however pointed out that they were necessary to sanitize and re position the state for effective service delivery.
Bello during Monday’s Independence Day anniversary broadcast from the Government House, Lokoja said through some of the reforms, the state had been re positioned for good governance.
He said that his administration had over the over two years in office, worked hard to make Kogi a better place for all.
According to him: “I do not deny that some of our reforms have been hard, especially in the civil service, but necessary to institutionalize good governance.”
He said that the state civil service was better off, adding that aside weeding out undeserving beneficiaries from the payroll, “we are better able to pay salaries.
He added, “As at today, we have paid August salaries to our local government employees. We were able to raise the payments from 10 percent in many cases, when we assumed office to 54 percent in August. Our aim is to reach and sustain 100 percent shortly.
“As further gains from our civil service and pensions reforms, we started paying state civil servants 100 percent of their salaries over the last couple of months.
“While that is ongoing, we intend to pay off all arrears due to cleared workers soon, maybe as soon as this month.”
He disclosed that the government concluded the audit of the state pension administration covering a period of five years preceding his government.
He said that the exercise unveiled an N4.3bn fraud, adding that the findings were made public.
