THE editorial in Vanguard Newspaper of Thursday September 17, at page 18, is a belated remark on the latest development of the salary issue in the state of Osun.

Though, even if it had come out before now, the contents therein of the editorial would still not be fitting to the present situation.

Recently (precisely Wednesday, 16th September, 2015), the state government commenced the payment of outstanding salaries and pensions from N34.989bn bailout loan received for the Federal Government for that particular purpose.

Evidently, it has clearly shown that Osun Government did not tie the payment of salary to the presentation of primary school leaving certificate as wildly claimed in the Vanguard editorial.

Before the payment of the backlog of salaries, the State Government had at different fora stated that the primary school certificate is not a prerequisite for payment of salaries.

The insinuation is mischievous and incorrect as the circular and form sent out by government were not meant for the payment of salary but for the monitoring and control within the civil service.

Primary School Leaving Certificate in the scheme for public service workers is only applicable to those who are appointed or employed as cleaners, guards, messengers and others, who fall within this category of staffers.

Therefore, in filling such forms, individuals are not compelled to fill everything but those portions that are applicable to them.

Hence, it will  be incongruous to ask a medical doctor or an engineer, who presented MBBS and B. Eng to present Primary School leaving Certificate.

The conclusion by Vanguard that government wanted to hide under the presentation of primary school certificate to sidestep its statutory obligations to the workers, knowing fully well that majority of the civil servants would be unable to locate this foundational certificate, is at best drawn in error, at worst based on ignorance.

Granted that certificates such as that of primary, secondary or university are issued to any recipient once in a life time, law allows a re-issue in case such certificate is destroyed, stolen or lost. This is why organisations, government or agencies would require a Certified True Copy (CTC) of such lost or destroyed certificate in lieu of original.

All the owner of a missing certificate needs to do is approach a court and swear to an affidavit that the certificate is missing or destroyed. He or she then takes the affidavit to the school in question and a CTC will be issued to him or her, which is valid as the original.

Thus, it is pertinent to note that the commencement of salary payment was not done on discrimination of certificate – whether National Diploma (ND) Bachelor degree or School Certificate contrary to the deduction of Vanguard Newspaper that presentation of certificate is a ploy by government to avoid paying the workers. All have been receiving payment alerts.

The essence of asking civil servants to produce certificate is predicated on staff auditing, which is very essential for any government to know the number of its work force; who does what in what capacity as well as to determine the capacity and output of any worker.

It is our considered opinion that a newspaper should be well informed on the issue it intends to write about so as to avoid mis-informing the general public.

Osun Government has no other plan for the bailout it received other than to deploy it to offsetting the salary backlog. But it does not and shall not compromise ‘judicious use’ of the bailout fund

Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, a Media  aide to the Osun State governor.