12 states still owe workers salaries despite bailout
Also on the list of heavily indebted states are Osun, 12 months; Kwara, 11; Bayelsa, 7; Ondo, 7; Ekiti, 6; and Oyo, 6.
Others are Benue State, 4 months; Nasarawa State,
2; Abia, 2; Imo, 2; as well as several months of unpaid allowances and Ogun
State, which owes over six months of unremitted deductions from workers’
salaries for cooperatives, union dues, among others.
This revelation came as Organised Labour accused the Federal Government of
owing civil servants a whopping N290 billion promotion arrears, lamenting that
all efforts at making the government pay had not yielded any positive result.
Giving an overview of the salary situations across
the states, Secretary-General of Association of Senior Civil Servants of
Nigeria, ASCSN, Bashir Alade Lawal, told Vanguard that some states were still
defaulting in payment, in spite of the huge bailout received from the Federal
Government.
He said:
“Osun State is owing one year, Ekiti is owing six months, Oyo is owing
six months, Ondo is owing seven months; Beyelsa is owing seven months; Abia,
two months; Benue four months; Kogi 15 months; Nasarawa three months.
‘’Ogun can claim it is not owing but it is not
paying deductions from workers’ salaries in some cases, six, seven, eight
months. They are only paying net, not
gross. So, if you have paid net and you
have not paid all deductions, you have not paid full salaries.
‘’As at today, Anambra is not owing, likewise
Borno, Delta, Edo, Ebonyi, Cross River, Rivers, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano,
Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara and Sokoto.
“Anywhere in the world, you pay workers’ salaries
first before doing anything else. For example, in Osun State, some senior staff
are being owed over two years allowances. In order words, you can simply say
they are being owed one year salaries. What are the explanations? ‘’Bailout has been given about three times
and the last one with clear directive from the Federal Government for the
states to focus on salaries and pensions, but Osun State government claimed
that government was not instructed to use the entire bailout to pay workers’
salaries.”
In Kwara State, Vanguard gathered that the
government has not paid staff in the parastatals in the state up to March, 2017
and that the last time workers were paid was February 2017.
It was also learned that the local government
workers are worse off as they are being owed as many as 11 months, with the
exemption of Barutin Local Government which had paid up to date because of its
low personnel staff and the remote location.
Reacting to the development, Senior Special
Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of kwara State on Media and
Communications, Dr Muideen Akorede, told Vanguard that the state government had
paid workers in state parastatals , their salaries
He said:
“We are up to date, so we are not owing any of our staff. If anyone has not been paid, such staff will
be paid before the close of this week.
Though I don’t have all the details, you may please contact Commissioner
for Finance, Demola Banu, for more information.”
Vanguard checks, however, confirmed that staff of
state-owned Kwara TV; Herald Newspapers, Radio Kwara, were paid their March
salaries last week.
In Ondo State, Vanguard also gathered that the
state government was owing six month salaries- August to December 2016 and
January 2017, though the new governor, Rotimi Akeredolu paid salaries of
August, 2016 as well as February and March 2017.
In is reaction, Chief Press Secretary to the
governor , Segun Ajiboye, said the immediate past government owed workers six
months ( August 2016 to January 2017) salaries but noted that the present
administration under Rotimi Akeredolu, had paid February and March 2017 to
workers on assumption of office.
He added that during the Easter period, Governor Akeredolu
also paid the arrears of August 2016 to workers to celebrate the festivity
In Oyo State, investigations revealed that none of
the workers, both at the core civil service and local government, had been paid
their salaries up to March 2017, while some of the workers are yet to be paid
since December, last year.
Similarly, in Kogi State, workers have not been
paid for many months, as the staff screening embarked upon by the state
government since March, last year, has continued to hinder many of the workers
from receiving their salaries.
It was learned that aside from those who were on
the cleared list from the screening report released in December 2016, and
had received their salary up till
February, over 40 per cent of both local
government and state workers have not received their salaries since September,
last year.
Reacting, yesterday, the Chief Press Secretary to
the Kogi State Governor, Petra Anyegbule said the state government does not owe
workers except those whose genuine status as state workers are still in doubt
and under verification as workers by the screening appeal committee.
She said when their status is verified, all
genuine workers will be paid, urging them to exercise patience till when the
screening appeal committee will have concluded their assignment.
She said the civil service reform embarked on by
the governor must be total, adding that 96 per cent of those who had been
cleared have received their salaries to date.
Imo State workers have for long, been receiving
varying percentages of emoluments, against the approved wages. Civil servants
contacted, confirmed that salaries for the month of March and April 2017, were
outstanding.
They also affirmed that government only paid 80
per cent of legitimate salary to the senior staff and 100 per cent to the
junior ranks.
Benue State government blamed its inability to
regularly pay the wages of workers in the state on the sharp drop in the
allocation from the Federation Account.
Speaking to Vanguard in a telephone interview in
Makurdi, the Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to the Governor, Mr. Terver Akaase,
said despite the decline from the Federation Allocation, the Samuel Ortom-led
administration had been able to reduce the backlog from about six months which
the government inherited from the last administration to three months.
Akaase said:
“The fact of the matter is that before the advent of the present
administration, Benue was getting an average of N6 billion monthly from the Federation
Allocation.
“Unfortunately, since the coming to power of the
present administration, the government has been receiving an average of N2
billion monthly while our monthly wage bill is over N4.1 billion.
“What it meant is that what we receive monthly
cannot in any way match our monthly wage bill, let alone having anything to
embark on developmental projects, so we are left with the option of alternating
salary payments by using two or three allocations to offset a month’s salary.
“The situation today is that we are owing three
months unpaid salaries and we are hoping that the Paris Club debt refund will
help us clear at least two months of the backlog and from there, we will be
making progress.”
Meanwhile, ASCSN has said the Federal Government
was owing civil servants N290 billion promotion arrears, lamenting all efforts
to make government pay have not yielded any positive result.
According to ASCSN’s scribe, the federal
government is busy bailing out states and local governments without its own workers.
He said:
“You promote somebody from grade level 9 to 10, from 10 to 12, 12 to 13
and in some cases, from 13, to 14 and he
or she is still earning the salary of level 9. All these arrears of promotions
have accumulated to almost N290 billion.
‘’We have engaged this government from day one and
up till now, it has not paid. This is
very callous and wicked. The sad thing
about it is that some are entitled to N50,000, N500,000 and things like that,
depending on the grade level. Some have
retired now.
“We are not even asking the government to pay
everything at once. You can say, alright, let us start paying N70 billion and
before you know what is happening, you have cleared this bill. It is like the
government is not interested until you take to the streets. When you go to the
streets that is when you now see the highest office in the land calling the
Finance Minister to pay.
‘’You know you are owing and you are bailing out
others, bailing out the state and local governments, you are not bailing out
yourself.
“We have made noise, but government is not
listening. So, we are preparing and very shortly, we will do something to at
least, compel the government to look at
our side. This indebtedness to workers at the federal level dates back to 2007 and we are talking about
2017.
‘’That is over 10 years. It is a precarious
situation, but we are hopeful that some of the actions we intend to take will compel government to
address the issue.”
Efforts to reach the Ministry of Finance for
comments, last night, proved abortive as no one was ready to speak for the
ministry.
Comments
Post a Comment