Mr. Seriake Dickson, the Governor of Bayelsa State, has made his first practical move against the payroll syndicate in the state.
According to Saturday Punch, Dickson is said to have ordered the State Head of Service and his Chief of Staff, Chief Talford Ongolo, to ensure immediate removal of the names of all those indicted in the pervasive payroll fraud in the state.
A member of the committee said that the government issued the directive during a meeting with top officials of the government and committee members on Thursday.
It was reliably gathered that Dickson issued a stern directive that the salaries of all those indicted in the payroll fraud should be stopped and paid to the
'Unpaid Salaries Account' in the state.
Before this, there was widespread insinuation that the Governor lacked the political will to carry out the outcome of the verification conducted in the state.
The source said that Dickson assured the citizens that no innocent person would be affected in the ongoing effort to purge the public service of the corruption that had held down the state for years.
The Governor was said to have directed all those affected (whose names had been compiled) to be referred to a judicial Commission of Inquiry which had been set up to look into their complaints.
Dickson was quoted as having said that JCI was designed to offer the opportunity to affected people who might want to contest the decision of the panel to prove themselves.
It was further learnt that a large number of those implicated in the payroll scam came from the eight local government areas of the state.
The governor was said to have raised the alarm at the level of criminality perpetrated in the councils and its financial implications for the state.
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