By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
Governor of Cross River State, Senator Prince Basset Otu has been tasked to hold the immediate past Auditor-General of the state, Mr John Oden, responsible for the state’s bloated wage bill.
Suspended chairman of Cross River State Civil Service Commission, Mr. Uko Inaku, gave the charge while reacting to the alarm raised by Governor Otu over the state’s bloated payroll, which the governor said has placed in the state a huge wage burden.
Otu had about a month ago expressed worry over the huge state government wage bill, despite the exit of many civil servants from the service as a result of retirement or occupational mobility of labour.
This had prompted the governor to alleged that there are ghost workers in the state civil service.
Inaku was also reacting to the allegations by immediate past Auditor-General of the state, Odey, accusing him of being responsible for the bloated payroll.
The embattled CSC chairman pointed accusing fingers at Odey, stressing that he should be held responsible for bloated state government payroll, accusing him of illegally injecting names of his relatives nad cronnies into the payroll.
Inaku said, “Odey’s wife and other of his nominees were employed and he payrolled her and all his nominees, which bloated the state’s monthly wage bill, whereas others employed in that same batch are yet to be payrolled till today.”
He averred that Odey’s grudge against him is that he refused to allow Odey multilate the record of service that would have paved way for Odey to remain in service up to 2028, after he exhausted the mandatory 35-year service.
He added, “Odey attempted to falsify his age to allow him to serve till 2028, after 35 years and when I turned that down, he became offended.”
Inaku alleged that most of the fake names on Criss River State government payroll were injected by Odey, which was the reason he made himself the generator of the payroll names, the screening officer and the paying officer, which he leveraged on to bloat the state wage bill to line his pocket.
He revealed, “Odey”s wife is on the payroll and he illegally injects thousands of names into the payroll.”
Inaku asked the state governor to hold Odey to account for the source of his sudden wealth, leading to errection of multi-million naira mansion, built with an elevator and helipad.
He added, “Out of the 20,000 persons he put on payroll, only 15,000 have showed up for verification in the ongoing staff audit in the state.
“That clearly reveals the level of manipulation Odey was orchestrating while in office.”
Reacting to the allegations, the immediate past Auditor-General of the state, Mr. Odey denied the allegations and likened Inaku to a jester and bad product that had lost its value.
Odey averred that he was already at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to file petition against his accusers, who had battered his good image so that they can be invited for questioning by the anti-graft agency.
