The Cross River State Government has dismissed Wednesday’s protest by individuals claiming to be unpaid local government workers as a calculated attempt to pressure government into legitimising irregular appointments uncovered during an ongoing payroll sanitisation exercise, insisting that no amount of public protest, intimidation or blackmail would derail its commitment to transparency, accountability and due process.
The Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Chief Victor Felix Idem, while reacting to the news of the protest in Calabar, said the protesters were not lawfully recruited employees of the Local Government Service but persons whose purported appointments were discovered during a comprehensive payroll verification exercise to have fallen outside the recruitment approvals granted by government.
According to the Commissioner, the present administration inherited a deeply compromised recruitment process in which government approval for the employment of approximately 500 personnel into the Local Government Service was exploited to introduce thousands of additional names into the system without authorisation.
“The facts are very clear. Government approved the recruitment of about 500 personnel into the Local Government Service. What we subsequently discovered was 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,” Idem stated.
He explained that the discovery compelled Governor Bassey Edet Otu’s administration to take decisive remedial measures, including the removal of officials allegedly connected with the exercise and the dissolution of the then leadership of the Local Government Service Commission as part of a broader institutional reform agenda.
The Commissioner disclosed that government thereafter engaged independent consultants and forensic payroll experts to undertake a comprehensive audit and sanitisation of the local government payroll, with the objective of restoring credibility to the system, eliminating irregular entries and ensuring that public resources are expended strictly in accordance with the law.
“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. We will not compromise on that responsibility,” he said.
Chief Idem stressed that every legitimately recruited local government worker whose appointment complied with extant regulations and whose records were properly captured on the payroll has continued to receive salaries without interruption, dismissing insinuations that government was withholding the salaries of genuine employees.
“There are no outstanding salaries owed to duly recruited local government workers. Those making such claims are simply not reflecting the true situation. Every legitimate employee captured on the payroll continues to receive his or her salary as and when due.”
The Commissioner declared that the administration would not succumb to what he described as orchestrated attempts to manipulate public sentiment in order to secure official recognition for appointments that did not comply with established procedures.
“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 by placing persons on the public payroll merely because they have taken to the streets. That would amount to a betrayal of the public trust.”
He added that the issues uncovered by the payroll audit raise serious concerns about the integrity of the recruitment process inherited by the present administration, noting that government has a constitutional obligation to correct such anomalies rather than perpetuate them.
“What we inherited was a system that required urgent cleansing. The ongoing reforms are intended to restore order, discipline and credibility to the Local Government Service. Our responsibility is to protect the integrity of public institutions, not to institutionalise irregularities.”
Reaffirming the administration’s zero-tolerance stance against payroll fraud and abuse of public resources, the Commissioner said Governor Otu remains resolute in building a public service anchored on merit, accountability and fiscal responsibility.
“The era of indiscriminate recruitment, payroll manipulation and financial leakages is over in Cross River State. This administration is determined to ensure that every appointment into the public service follows due process and that every salary paid is backed by lawful employment.”
Chief Idem urged members of the public to disregard narratives suggesting that legitimate local government workers were being denied their salaries, describing such claims as deliberate misinformation intended to undermine the state’s ongoing public service reforms.
He assured that the government would continue strengthening recruitment procedures, deploying technology-driven payroll management systems and enforcing strict compliance with established regulations to prevent future abuses while safeguarding the resources of the people of Cross River State.
The protest, staged in Calabar on Wednesday, saw demonstrators demand enrolment on the state payroll and payment of salaries they claimed had accumulated for over eleven months. The Cross River State Government, however, maintained that the payroll cleansing exercise represents a necessary institutional reform designed to eliminate irregularities, protect public funds and preserve the integrity of the Local Government Service, insisting that only duly authorised appointments will qualify for remuneration from the public treasury.
