Christmas: Umahi announces 13th month salary bonus  for Ebonyi workers

The governor further  stated that the  state House of Assembly had already given approval for sums to be spent on the largesse,   stressing that his government  was not  owing workers salaries.

Recall that Umahi had announced 5 per cent salary increment to all the workers on October 1 this year.

Umahi further disclosed his administration’s plan to begin immediate payment of gratuity arrears owed by both local and state governments since 1993 amounting to  N8bn.

The governor, who expressed dismay that civil servants found it difficult to pay their retired colleagues their pensions but would want to be paid when they retired, said the  payment of gratuities would begin this month with the families of retirees who are now late.

He said,”We are not owing anybody pension in Ebonyi State. Gratuity is owed since 1993 and gratuity for both local  and state governments is over N8bn but the funny thing is that when you seat as a civil servants,you refuse to pay others their gratuities and when you now leave, you start insisting, we should pay gratuity.

“So, for those we have owed gratuity for a very long time;we are expecting a miracle. What we want to do for our brothers and sisters that were not paid gratuities and they are dead, we intend to look at them and  see how we can pay off their gratuities through their families and we hope to do it this December.

“We also want to pay everyone that has retired 10 per cent of whatever we owe him/her in the name of pension and other allowances.”

Umahi further disclosed that his government had  assisted Ebonyians mostly women doing petty business (not hawkers) in Lagos with   N140m  to enhance their business opportunities.