In the face of two major protests last week about non-payment of salaries to some category of civil servants in the state and the tacit disengagement of others from the Cross River State Civil Service, investigations by www.calitown.com have revealed that there is a plan being worked on by some civil servants in the state to effect monetary deductions from the salaries of civil servants for what one civil servant has described to us as a “criminal excuse”.
While a letter obtained by www.calitown.com, dated November 5, 2019 with reference number, GO/HOS/1213/VOL.1/45 and signed by one Agnes E. Inyang, a Director in the CRS Civil Service, invited the Speaker CRSHA, Chief Judge, Secretary to the State Givernment, non-existent Commissions and Boards, all Permanent Secretaries, the Accountant-General of the state, Clerk of the CRSHA, etc to a meeting this past Thursday, Nivember 7, 2019, in a restaurant, Lamoni Munchies, New Secretariat Complex, Calabar, not many of those invited knew about a key underlying detail of the meeting.
The meeting, purportedly put together to discuss modalities for a send forth for the retiring CRS Head of Service, Ekpenyong I. Henshaw, also had a quietly worked out plan to deduct N300 from the salaries of civil servants from Grade Level 1-6, N500 for level 7-13 and N1000 for level 14-17.
“What are the retiring Head of Service’s achievements? Did he have any, favouring civil servants? Aren’t majority of us not paid and he can’t even make a statement? Now his cohorts want our monies deducted for something as frivolous as his sendforth. We are already over taxed and impoverished by this system and they still want to rob us in daylight. Do you know what this particular illegal deduction will in total amount to? You people should help us before these people steal from us again”, an affected civil servant who has elected to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, cried out to www.calitown.com.
Unofficial estimates put the number of civil servants in the state at around 23, 000. 10,000 of this number are believed to fall into the G/L 1 – 6 category, 8,000 are in the 7 – 13 category while 5,000 make up the 14 – 17 category. Going by these estimates, the first, second and third categories will contribute N3 million, N4 million and N5 million respectively. In all, N12 million maybe illegally deducted from civil servants in the state for a send forth for the Head of Service.
We were unable to get any official reaction from the Office of the Head of Service, CRS, at press time, even though a top civil servant in the office maintained to us that ” these kind of deductions normally take place, but they are not legal and we often turn the other way, for our safety, while the deductions are made. Don’t ask me about the expenditure please.”
