Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, has promised to establish what he described as a sinking fund to address the issue of gratuity to retiring civil servants in the state.
Ayade made the disclosure during the presentation of the 2022 fiscal appropriation bill before the State House of Assembly.
“We are going to present in the next Executive Council meeting, a request seeking the authorisation of the Executive Council to provide a sinking fund for the payment of gratuity,” Ayade declared.
Contained in the budget tagged “Budget of Conjugated Agglutination”, Governor Ayade hinted that “a minimum of 30 to 50 million naira from the budget will be set aside monthly and committed to the sinking fund so that in every two to three months, we will be able to make a payment out for gratuity.”
The governor further revealed that “it is a decision l have already taken from my point of view. So I will get the Executive Council extract and seek the House of Assembly’s final approval so that we can place an irrevocable standing payment order against our expected inflows. That way, our people who have retired do not suffer in vain.”
