I'll not slash salaries, down-size workforce ---Okorocha

(Nigeria) Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on Tuesday said his administration had no intention to down-size its workforce or slashing workers’ salaries.

Speaking with journalists during an unscheduled visit to some of the parastatal agencies in the state, Okorocha said his administration was, however, determined to sanitise the workforce.

The governor said that he was perturbed by the nonchalant attitude of some workers toward their job, especially their lateness to work and absenteeism.

``On my tours to some of the government establishments and parastatal agencies, particularly the hospital management board, I noticed with dismay that most of the workers do not come to work. It appears that the state government pays the wrong people salaries.

``In some of the state hospitals I visited, there was no one on duty except at a hospital where I met one nurse and it is a hospital that is supposed to have 14 doctors. I am set to sanitise the system,” he said.

Okorocha urged the workers to ensure that they were at their offices daily, adding that his government would no longer tolerate absenteeism.

He urged the public servants to report any fraudulent activity in their various offices.

He decried the situation where a local government worker kept more than two jobs in the state, pointing out that such acts would no longer be tolerated.

Okorocha urged the workers to be serious with their jobs and justify their salaries.

He said the state’s internally generated revenue was about the least in Nigeria, attributing it to fraudulent activities by political appointees, senior staff of ministries, parastatal agencies and local governments.

The governor said his administration had concluded arrangements to tour all the government offices to checkmate the the activities of the workers and advised them to be at their work places in their own interest.