S/East states’ workers groan as bailout fund fails to offset salary arrears

BAILOUT FUND:

FROM GEORGE ONYEJIUWA, EMMANUEL UZOR, PETRUS OBI, OKEY SAMPSON, AKIN ALOFETEKUN, EMMANUEL ADEY­EMI, ROSE EJEMBI, LAYI OLANRE­WAJU, AND MARIAM AGBOOLA

With the dole out of bailout funds to states by the federal gov­ernment, the dust raised by backlog of salaries and sun­dry debts owed workers in the South-East states is yet to settle.

In Imo State, Governor Rochas Okorocha is still down with workers’ debts and the fear to incur more in terms of salaries has pushed him into concessioning parastatals, which has pitched him against the organized labour in the state.

In Ebonyi State like Imo, Governor Dave Umahi is having hectic time with the orga­nized labour who are insisting that he must continue to pay them the 50 per cent increment put by former Governor Martin Elechi at the twilight of his administration.

In Enugu state, though the workers are not agitating openly as the civil servants among them are not owed, they are nevertheless grumbling over the arrears owed their counter­parts in parastatals in the state.

Thus the governors of the states are in a quandary on how to come out from the fi­nancial quagmire with some of them already adopting drastic measures while some others are gearing up to taking low risk loans.

In Imo State, the State University Teaching Hospital (IMSUTH) has been shut down for the past three months as a result of the strike embarked upon by doctors for lack of facili­ties, inadequate manpower and non-payment of their salaries by the state government.

This ugly state of affairs had spurned the dis­traught medical students to take to the streets in demonstration.

Similarly, the strike embarked by the state chapter of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PSAN) over the non-payment of their seven months’ salary arrears has forced the state legislators to adjourn for a recess.

This is excluding the pension arrears owed retired civil servants in the state.

Thus, the inability of the state government to settle the backlog of salary arrears clearly indicates that the bailout fund given to the state by the Federal Government has proved inade­quate to solve the financial woes of the state.

Indeed, this is not the best of times for Gov­ernor Rochas Okorocha as there are no indus­tries and enterprises that could substantially help to put money in circulation in the state.

As it stands in the state, salary payment pattern is deliberately staggered with some ministries and parastatals receiving salaries in long-drawn arrears

while others receive nothing.

For instance, while workers of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) are owed three months arrears, their counterparts in the Imo Transport Corporation

(ITC) are still being owed salaries for up­wards of seven months just as the employees of the Imo State Hospital Management Board are also owed three months of unpaid salaries.

The same is for the employees of the Spe­cialist Hospital (formerly, General Hospital) Umuguma, who are five months down with­out salaries.

Indeed, Governor Okorocha agreed that government parastatals in the state are be­ing owed an upward of five months arrears, but explained that his concept of parastatals was such that the establishments should be self-sustaining.

Apparently, looking for a way out of the financial quagmire, the governor decided to concession the management of the parastatals and the hospitals in the state to private organ­isations.

According to Okorocha, “I can’t continue to give them subvention. ADP in the state collects close to N20 million every month producing nothing; the Imo State

Water Board gets more than N7 million every month, yet there is no pipe-borne water anywhere in Imo State. We cannot be wasting public resources on people who are not pro­ductive.”

But the organised labour in the state togeth­er with some communities whose communal clinics were affected has vowed to resist the concession plans of the governor.

The state chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Austin Chilakpu blamed Okorocha for the dismal performances of the parastatals, insisting that the government has not funded the parastatals adequately to en­able them perform.

Similarly the state Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association, Dr Hycinth Emele, said the concession of public health institutions in the state, including health centres by the gov­ernor is already having an adverse effect on health institutions and the poor masses.

Emele stated that NMA has condemned the concession of public health institutions by the state to private individuals, insisting that health was one of the basic responsibilities of a gov­ernment.

However, the Chief Press Secretary to Gov­ernor Okorocha, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo said: “On the part of the lmo State government the issue of workers’ salary hasn’t been a problem until the recent ugly economic situation in the country.

“The government never owed workers in the first tenure. With the bailout fund too, the government has paid up till September except those in some of the parastatals the govern­ment has some issues to settle with them.

“The government can’t retrench workers except those found wanting and who will have some disciplinary actions taken against them. The government has never shown interest in borrowing except when it has become increas­ingly necessary and it must be for serious is­sues like capital projects and not for payment of salaries. The governor has already adopted some precautionary measures to ensure that the issue of salary does not pose any problem again like it did in the past two months.”

In Ebonyi State, the issue of dwindling allo­cation from the federation account is no more news to workers in the state, especially since the inception of Governor Dave Umahi’s ad­ministration. If they have not heard it before, they have felt its ugly effects.

Though the state has been managing to pay all arrears of salaries owed the workers, it has been a tug-of-war between Governor Umahi and the organized labour.

This was not because of the inability of the state to pay but the inability of the work­ers to settle for anything less than the sudden increase in salaries of workers in the state by former Governor Martin Elechi three months to the end of his tenure.

Thus in the face of persistent dwindling al­location from the federation account, Umahi is faced with daunting challenges from various sectors of the state economy.

Before the bailout fund was released by President Muhammadu Buhari, the state was cash strapped to the point that it could not pay its workforce nor embark on capital projects.

Consequently, barely few weeks into office, Umahi was faced with serious workers’ as the organized labour went up in arms, agitating for salary increment.

The Ebonyi workers had accused the state government of being insensitive to their plight in the implementation of the 50 per cent salary increase which Elechi approved three months to the end of his administration.

However, Governor Umahi has vowed not to owe any worker his or her salary and has ordered the Accountant General of the state to ensure workers’ salaries are paid on the 20^th of every month.

He said that the continuation of the 50 per cent salary increment would have been pos­sible if the state is still receiving the same amount of money from the federation account.

Part of the efforts readily made by the Ebo­nyi State government, according to the Com­missioner for Finance, Chief Dennis Ekuma Nkama apart from the receipt of the bailout fund was on how to increase Internally Gener­ated Revenue (IGR) in the state.

He said that the steps taken so far by Gov­ernor Umahi to stop unnecessary expenditure and profligacy on the state treasury would also help get money for the state government, espe­cially after inheriting an almost empty treasury.

Nkama was of the view that the state may be averse to borrowing money from the banks or running to the capital market for fund to settle pressing needs.

Though Governor Umahi has taken steps to give Abakaliki, the state capital a facelift by embarking on aggressive construction of roads and other beautification projects upon assump­tion of office, but there abound in the state many uncompleted projects which Umahi claimed he met in near abandoned state when he came into office and which he has refused to touch.

For instance, the gigantic Ochudo City, the two water schemes at Oferekpe and Ukawu left behind by the previous administration, are yet to receive any attention by Umahi.

The 36 unity bridges and their access roads have neither been completed nor commis­sioned and all these are the challenges staring the new administration in the face.

In Enugu State, the story is slightly different as the government did not inherit backlog of salaries owed civil servants unlike in the other states except for workers in the parastatals.

However, the government inherited arrears of salaries for parastatals, pensions and gratu­ity which it said would gulp about N32 billion to offset.

But the government was given a bailout fund of about N14 billion with only N4.02 billion meant for offsetting arrears owed the workers.

Already the government has applied and gotten the N4.02 billion as approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Uwakwe Abugu disclosed that the government was still in the process of trying to access the approved N4.02 billion bailout for workers.

He also disclosed that the government was also considering another N10 billion bailout fund to be used strictly for projects in the state.

He dismissed insinuations that the govern­ment may abandon projects, cut salaries of workers or reduce workforce, pointing out that the government has set up a committee of gov­ernment/labour on bailout and other arrears to ensure that all debts were cleared and projects executed to touch the lives of the people.

Also the Chairman of the Trade Union Con­gress (TUC) in the state, Comrade Chukwuma Igbokwe confirmed that the government was not owing them regular monthly salary up till September, but noted that parastatals like the Institute for Management and Technology (IMT), Water Corporation are being owed four months due to inability of the government to release monthly subventions from which these workers are paid.

He also noted that non-permanent staff in the parastatals that have been on half salary are being owed 36 months just as gratuity and pensions are also owed since 2009.

The labour leader explained that after the salary increase, subventions to parastatals such as Enugu Agricultural Development Programme and Enugu State Sports Council were not enough to pay salaries, making them to resort to half salary which has lasted for 36 months.

Igbokwe said it was the government’s mis­take to have forwarded N4.02 billion as what it owed which was also approved as bailout fund which he said could only settle the four months’ salary being owed workers in para­statals.

The TUC chairman who is also member of the Government/Labour Committee on bailout fund and other arrears said when they met re­cently, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi requested the committee to gather all arrears and recom­mend to the government the best way to go.

Igbokwe, however, noted that the recom­mendation at the end of the day may also be for the government to go for further bailout fund.

He expressed concern that the government debt which was not attended to by the Sullivan Chime government has affected workers in the state drastically.

In Abia, the state government has set up a committee that will be in charge of paying workers’ salary arrears from the N14billion bailout fund it received from the Federal Gov­ernment.

This is even as workers in the state are wait­ing to see if the deadline of October 30, set by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for the payment of salary arrears would be met.

Speaking in Umuahia, Governor Ikpeazu said the state had received about N14billion bailout fund, saying that the money would not be used for the payment of gratuities, but only salaries.

However, the governor gave the end of this month as the deadline for the payment of all salary arrears owed workers in the state.

Some categories of workers are owed as much as eight months while others are owed up to three years.

This has made life unbearable for the work­ers as some of them have resorted to doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

The state government no doubt is experienc­ing paucity of funds at this point in time which may have informed the idea of putting on hold road reconstruction works going on in some areas of Aba.

However, it is putting up measures to boast its internally generated revenue to compliment whatever comes from the Federal Govern­ment.

Niger State is probably one of the few states in the country whose workers have not experi­enced delay in the payment of salaries. From the days of Engineer Abdulkhadir Abdullahi Kure in 1999, through Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu to the present governor, Alhaji Abuba­kar Sani Bello, no administration in the state has failed to meet its obligation to workers as it affects payment of salaries.

This is not however to say that the prevail­ing economic crunch has not been biting very hard. As it is, the only project the new gov­ernment in the state has been able to carry out since assumption of office in May this year is the filling of potholes on major roads in the state. This project was tagged ‘operation zero potholes’

As a result of the economic challenges fac­ing the country, the administration of Alhaji Sani Bello has commenced the process of down-sizing its workforce. Head of the Civil Service in the state, Alhaji Maude in an inter­view said the 54 permanent secretaries inherit­ed by the administration from Aliyu has been pruned down to 25, pointing out that similar thing would also take place at the lower level of the service.

In Kogi State, the government is yet to re­ceive the N50.9billion bail- out fund from the Federal Government. The non-release of the fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has taken the dispute between the All Progres­sives Congress, APC and the Peoples Demo­cratic Party, PDP to the verge of conflict as the opposition party is being peddled as the brain behind the non-release.

The government accused the opposition party of writing no fewer than 10 petitions to the CBN on the need by the apex bank to withhold the money as the governorship elec­tion approaches. Government officials in Kogi State are charging the PDP of having told the CBN that if the money was released during this governorship election, it will be diverted by the PDP led government in the state.

The Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi told Saturday Sun that the state government had met all the conditions that must be satisfied for the fund to be accessed but that the situ­ation remains the same. According to him, of the N50.9 billion requested as bail-out, over N45 billion would be used to pay the salaries of staff of the 21 local government areas and primary school teachers who are being owed between eight to 23 months salaries while the rest will be used to pay the state civil servants who are only owed one month salary.

However, he expressed hope that the bailout fund would be received next week adding that Kogi State is expected to receive the highest fund because the state’s indebtedness to com­mercial banks was the least among the states that applied for the bailout.

The deputy governor’s optimism notwith­standing, some conditions that must be met are likely to work against the non-release of the fund. Saturday Sun learnt that apart from the huge petitions written against the release of the fund, the state government is yet to submit a comprehensive biometric data and bank verifi­cation numbers of all the staff in the local
gov­ernment and teachers to be paid. It was learnt that the government only submitted the salary voucher of the staff which was not acceptable by the CBN as it was said to be heavily laden with the names of ghost workers.

On the plight of workers in the state, the NLC chairman, Comrade Onu Edoka said the situation is precarious and threatened that if the money was not released within one week from Wednesday, a mass protest will be organized and all roads leading to the state will be com­pletely blocked. Edoka also threatened that the workers would ensure that the governorship election slated for Nov 21st would be disrupt­ed if the money was not released.

Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Comrade Abdullahi Suleiman, said his members are the worst hit. He pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene quickly before “things get out of hand”.

In Makurdi, the Benue State capital, Gover­nor Samuel Ortom, while giving his 100 days scorecard at a stakeholders meeting last Fri­day, disclosed that over N69 billion was being owed state and local government workers as salaries, pensions and gratuities at the time he took over the reins of power from his prede­cessor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam.

Government House officials stated that the immediate past administration owed workers of the state’s civil service five months salary before it handed over. But Ortom disagreed with the wage bill, noting that the current fig­ures at both levels seem bloated and therefore, unacceptable. He disclosed that verification exercises were ongoing at both the state and local government levels to ascertain the gen­uineness or otherwise of wage bills he put at close to N4 billion monthly in both cases.

He also revealed that the state only a few days before then received bailout funds for payment of salary arrears at both the local gov­ernment and state levels. “We accessed N15.5 billion for payment of teachers and local gov­ernment staff salary arrears and N12.5 for state government workers.” However, the Ortom’s administration had, before accessing the bail­out, borrowed funds in form of bonds to the tune of N15 billion for the purpose of paying workers’ salaries, take off of government and paying counterpart funds of development part­ners as well as execute other pressing govern­ment projects. That is aside the sum of N2.7 billion that was received from Liquified Nat­ural Gas (LNG) proceeds which was also said to have been used to offset part of the workers’ salary.

Ortom, however, lamented that these much-awaited funds may not be able to clear all salary arrears. According to him, both ar­rears of local and state government pensions and gratuities have not been covered by the funds.

Although the government is yet to make a clear cut pronouncement on whether or not it would engage in staff retrenchment as a way out of its financial quagmire, there are indications that the ongoing staff verification exercises are part of steps it has taken to in­directly reduce the work force. Government said the exercises were aimed at blocking fi­nancial leakages resulting from payment of ghost workers. But key government watchers are of the opinion that the manner in which the exercises are being carried out would automat­ically affect some persons who are not ghost workers.

From Ilorin, the governor of Kwara State has said that he will not retrench staff, but re­duce cost of governance through the blockage of revenue leakages. Kwara State, like other states in Nigeria is currently experiencing paucity of funds as a result of dwindling fed­eral allocation to the states and low internally generated revenue, IGR to service necessary government activities. This has impacted negatively on the workers as several salaries of civil servants were left on paid. The state is also owing various categories of workers’ salaries ranging from one to five months espe­cially those working in parastatals. As a result, the Non -Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Kwara State owned tertiary institutions em­barked on indefinite strike to press home their demand for their five months salary arrears. The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on media and publici­ty, Dr Muideen Akorede said in his reaction that”Governor Ahmed takes the welfare of all workers seriously and is concerned by the plight of the affected workers.”

The governor has proposed N10b loan from commercial banks to revive ongoing in­frastructural projects in the state which were stalled by lack of funds. Governor Ahmed noted that the N10b loan became imperative because the drop in allocations had made it impossible to continue ongoing projects and start new ones as the government could barely afford to pay workers’ salaries without assistance. Providing further details of the pro­posed facility, Ahmed added that it was a soft loan with affordable repayment terms which had been collateralized against the state gov­ernment’s share of the Excess Crude Account.

In Plateau State, the government has been categorical that workers employed at the twi­light of the former Governor Jonah Jang ad­ministration would be asked to go. The gov­ernment however said that those who have been in the employment of the state govern­ment and have been captured by the biomet­rics will not be retrenched, but that “all those who were smuggled in by the last administra­tion towards the tail end of its tenure would be asked to go”.

The incumbent governor met six months unpaid salary when he took over in May 2015. With the bailout, so far the state government has cleared the backlog of salaries and paid salaries up to July. The state government however owes its workers August and Sep­tember salaries. Having exhausted the bailout fund, the state Governor, Simon Lalong held a meeting with heads of ministries, depart­ments and agencies last Tuesday to explain the financial situation to them. During the meeting, the state’s Accountant General, Cyril Sanyir, explained that the financial situation of the state is a precarious one. He said having inherited only N96m as credit balance from the previous administration, the state monthly allocation from the federation account stood at a little above N2.1b in the last four months, leaving the state with a debt profile of about N1.2b.

He said if this is deducted from the alloca­tion from the federation account for servicing of loan, the state will be left with a little above N600m to run the state. To pay salaries of workers alone, he said, the state government requires N1.4b monthly.

The state chairman of NLC, Comrade Jibril Bancir confirmed that the workers are only be­ing owed salaries for two months and that the workers have been patient with the adminis­tration knowing the efforts it is making to pay the remaining balance.

Governor Simon Lalong’s administration has been able to service the N103b debt and reduced it to N93b. For the going project, es­pecially those inherited from the past govern­ment, the governor on Tuesday got approval from the state House of Assembly to access N10b loan from the excess crude fund. Most of the projects are on-going and not yet aban­doned.