Contrary to claims by the staff of Abia state University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) that the government of Abia state is owing them ten months backlog of salaries, the state government has denied this allegation, saying no salaries are owed to the workers.

Speaking with Abia Breaking News on Wednesday, the Abia State Commissioner for Finance Obinna Oriaku said the government is only owing ABSUTH outstanding subvention, stating that there are other parastatals that are also being owed outstanding subvention but have been able manage their salary issues.

“ABSUTH is a Parastatal. Basically they generate income. When they generate income they keep it to themselves. What the state does is to pay them subvention. As a matter of fact, you can’t talk about salary for them because they pay their salaries. What we do is to subvent them monthly.

There are some institutions in Abia whom we are not regular with their subvention but they’ve been able to manage themselves within what they generate. When you go to that hospital, you pay when you buy card. You pay when you purchase drugs. If you receive consultancy service, you pay. None of them is done free of charge” he said.

Oriaku however admitted that as a research institute that they are not revenue generating agency but wondered where the resources they’ve been generating are, demanding for accountability on their side.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lym5SiIluPw

He said there are challenges with updating their subvention but affirmed that the government is not owing them. “Granted there are some pockets of outstanding subventions of the month but to say we’re owing them salaries, no. We don’t owe salaries to them. There are some institutions we’ve not paid their subvention but they’ve been able to pay their salaries and move forward” he said.

Oriaku who said these are some of the things that make some of them gets lazy said the government does not exist only to pay salaries. He urged them to make judicious use of their internally generated revenue.

Source: https://www.abnews247.com/2018/11/were-not-owing-absuth-workers-any-salary-abia-govt/