Authorities of the Cross River State Water Board Limited, CRSWBL, has directed, through a written order, that all staff of the company residing in her official quarters, expressly vacate their accommodation, www.calitown.com can report.
In a memo, CWD/AD/010/10/XIII/23, dated May 11, 2018 and signed Emmanuel Orok, Director Admin, for the Acting Managing Director, the memo cited that management has overwhelming evidence that these category if staff have unabatedly stolen from the Treatment Plant. Additionally while management claims it is working at making the place work, it also feels the pilfering of Water Board’s property was making it extremely difficult for operations to go on smoothly. Accordingly, staff were given till tomorrow, Saturday, May 12, 2018, to vacate the official residence or be forcefully ejected.
Acting Managing Director, Stephen Odey, when contacted by www.calitown.com, affirmed the information contained in the memo and further maintained that the residential accommodation was not statutory. “You know I am a lawyer and I cannot operate outside the law, what has been conveyed in the memo is the decision of management as a direct response to the massive pilfering that these staff have orchestrated.” He went further to inform that the decision will not be reversed as Ben Ayade, state governor, has approved this decision.
However, some of those affected by this decision maintain that, nowhere in the law can a quit notice be issued that insists that someone is given a two day deadline to vacate a residence. “They are owing us for 17 months, they have not paid, they are more interested in making us homeless. We even gathered that they have implemented massive cuts in our salaries and allowances. I came here as a contract staff with a pay offer of N120, 000 (one hundred and twenty thousand naira) but I hear my salary has now been pegged at N50, 000 (fifty thousand naira), is this not outrageous?”, one affected staff maintained.
Acting M.D, Odey, was quick to reply when confronted with the salary slash issue that, ” most of them were brought in and paid salaries without recourse to the civil service pay structure; you find out that two persons with the same qualification, had salaries that were different. A man just brings in his people, makes them contract staff and pays them outrageous wages, it is not acceptable, we will correct this anomaly.”
