Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, on Friday advised teachers in the state against dipping their necks into too much loan burden from the commercial banks.
Fayose, who recently refunded salaries deducted from workers, said this remains one of the best way to manage the effect of the delay in payment of salaries is having on them.
The governor promised to carry out reforms that would solve the perpetual problem of over-deduction of salary of workers through the biometric payment system introduced to block loopholes being used to siphon the state’s lean resources.
Fayose, who spoke during an interaction with teachers from public primary and secondary schools at Ola Oluwa Muslims’ Grammar School, Ado Ekiti, also donated 400 laptop computers to Accounting Officers operating in the state and Local Government levels, to collate vouchers and show to teachers before onward transmission to the Accountant General’s office for payment.
The Governor warned that the teachers should not be oblivious of the fact that a popular loan called ‘sharp-sharp’ introduced by one of the commercial banks is fast becoming a burden rather than benefit.
“Workers need to be careful with these loans from commercial banks, especially the one called sharp-sharp. Many are facing serious challenges caused by over-deduction by banks and when they have problems they will be blaming the government.
“I am not really happy with the idea of workers going home empty handed after the payment of salary because some had taken to many loans and they are left with nothing after receiving their salaries.
“That was why I instructed the Local Government accounting officers to crosscheck vouchers prepared with the ones collated by bursar of each school , so that all errors can be detected before reaching the Accountant General.
“And to those who had fallen victims of over-deduction, we will address it through the ongoing reforms. Though, we have no mandate to interfere with what you do with your banks, we are just being a passionate. I have directed the Accountant General to bring the managers of those banks to me, so that all these complaints can be addressed”, he said.
The governor said he was aware that problems arising from over deduction of salaries were rampant at the local level.
He promised to strengthen the system via decentralization of pay points to really abate the noticeable bottlenecks.
Fayose said not all the accounting officers will get the laptop computers in the first tranche of the distribution, promising to make
up in the next round while training will also follow appropriately.
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