RIVERS: SHARP PRACTICES IN MINISTRY OF FINANCE

It’s been three months now since a friends salary was tampered with by a finance firm - Sharp Sharp through the Ministry of Finance and the departments in charge of payment of salaries in Rivers State. The company gives unsecured loans to civil servants and they deduct their money monthly from their salaries with interest until the loan is fully paid. But the salary paid to many civil servants in February 2017 was tampered with by Sharp Sharp and their cohorts in the Ministry of Finance even though the said civil servants had fulfilled their obligations to Sharp Sharp two years ago.

It is highly reprehensible to unduly take advantage of civil servants under whatever guise. The story from Sharp Sharp is that the government owes them. So must the civil servants who transacted business with you and had fulfilled their obligation bear the brunt of government debts? I doubt the narrative that Governor Wike owes Sharp Sharp or has anything to do with them because this same incident happened in 2015 and 2016. They tampered with workers’ salaries and they are yet to remit the monies to the workers. Now, my question is: who benefits from this money that runs into millions, if not billions? Will the compound interest be paid to the workers as well? If truly the government is owing Sharp Sharp, must the civil servants bear the brunt at this time when their take home pay can no longer take them home?

I call on Governor Nyesom Wike to beam his search light on the activities of the Ministry of Finance and the various departments in charge of payment of salaries because this act shows lack of professionalism and assails their integrity. They have proven to be perennial offenders and unholy collaborators of sharp practices to the detriment of unsuspecting civil servants.

I can’t imagine any company gaining access to the salaries of civil servants at will without collaborating with insiders. Without an actionable solution from the government of Chief Nyesom Wike, I am afraid civil servants in Rivers State will continue to be short-changed with such unheard of impunity and notorious malfeasance. I also call on NUT, TUC and NLC in Rivers State to throw their weight behind the government to save thousands of civil servants who are their members from suffering untold hardship as a result of this malfeasance. Akudo Amadi, Port Harcourt