By NOELA EBOB B.
In line with the 2018 head count operation which ran from April to June, thousands of state agents risk losing their space in the state’s payroll.
Officials of the ministry of finance have revealed that, close to 26,000 state agents who did not turn up for the exercise will henceforth receive their wages via pay vouchers.
The information continues that such persons with irregularities have until January 2019 to rectify their cases; otherwise their names will be deleted from the state’s payroll.
The exercise it should be recalled targeted three hundred and ten thousand state agents (310,000). Among those who have been found wanting are the deceased, absentees, and those whose status are questionable, such as the use of fake documents or those with many errors, which has made their identification invalid.
According to officials, the names of those concerned will be published in different administrations and they will be required to provide necessary justifications for their various cases.
A three-month period has been given, to serve as an opportunity for those fished out for various reasons to clarify their status.
It is said that Control Posts will be set up at the Ministry of Finance beginning October 26, from where a discharge will be obtained, which is the document to be exchanged for a pay voucher.
According the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, the aim of the exercise is meant to help rationalize the country’s salary expenses.
While announcing the launch of the operation on April 16, 2018, the minister had stated that all the civil servants who are irregular in the signing of the pay slip because of either an unjustified absence, a resignation or unreported death will be identified and removed from the state’s payroll.
It should be recalled that the physical head count operation was instituted by President Paul Biya, with purpose to rid off unscrupulous workers within the country’s civil service.