The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Civil servants

  • ‘No trace of remittance of N5.2B deduction for pension’

    ‘No trace of remittance of N5.2B deduction for pension’

    The Director General of the Niger state Pension Board, Alhaji Mohammed Usman Tinau has disclosed that the Board has been unable to trace any remittance of the deduction of N5.2 billion which was allegedly said to have been deducted for pension on behalf of State Universal Basic Education Board by Ministry for Local Government from 2012 to date.

    Tinau stated this during an interface with the Chairman of the State House of Assembly Committee on Labour and Productivity, Honorable Malik Madaki when he was summoned along with other relevant key stakeholders in Ministry, Department and Agencies during an Investigation into the plight of the state pensioners in all the 25 Local Government Areas of the State.

    He said that although the money was said to have been remitted to the pension board, the Board have not been able to make any trace to that effect.

    The Director General told the Legislators that the new scheme for the contributory pension scheme stand at N7. 5 Billion adding that there are 3,800 beneficiaries of the scheme as at March 2017.

    He further said that the state has paid N2.4 Billion to 1,500 pensioners at both the state and local government levels in 2017.

    When the Legislators asked the State Commissioner for Local Government, Honorable Haliru Zakari Jikantoro, he said that he knew nothing on the matter as he was only transferred to the Ministry barely four months ago, but seek the permission of the Committee to allow his Permanent Secretary, Alh. Iko Adamu, Dauda who knows much on the issues to brief the Committee.

    However, the Permanent Secretary appealed to the Committee to allow him to submit in writing details on the issue after due consultation with the relevant Directors of the Ministry and to submit within three weeks to the Committee.

    The Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Alhaji Alhassan Bawa also claimed ignorant on the matter stating that he and other staff in the Board were newly appointed by the present administration sometimes last year.

    The Committee led by Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso said the excuses are not tenable directing both the officials of the state ministry for local government and the State Universal Basic Education Board to make detailed report of their roles on the matter since the inception of the pension scheme for Local Government staff in the State.

    The Committee expressed its desire and commitment to investigate and break the jinx in the lingering problems, affecting issues surrounding the payments of pension and gratuity of the state and local government retired Civil Servants and to ensure that all obstacles militating against the smooth operations of the scheme is holistically addressed.

     

  • Labour kicks, as El-Rufai throws up 1,990 quarters for sale

    Labour kicks, as El-Rufai throws up 1,990 quarters for sale

    The umbrella bodies of workers, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kaduna State, have kicked against the plan by the state government to sell 1,990 government quarters public auction, based on their open-market value.

    The labour unions said, the Civil Servants working for the state government and occupying these quarters were never given option of first refusal before the extension of offer to the general public, a situation they described as unfortunate and unacceptable.

    A statement jointly signed by the Chairmen of NLC, Comrade Adamu Ango and TUC, Comrade Shehu Mohammed said, “the entire workers of Kaduna State Government were taken aback by a paid advert in the Daily Trust Newspaper, Vol.42 No. 1 of Monday 27th February, 2017, relating to the sales of government quarters in the state to the political office holders disguised in the name of highest bidders”.

    The government had said that, in order to cut the cost of maintaining the government quarters, it has decided to sell about 1,990 of its non-essential residential quarters.

    The full list of available properties is placed on the state website, indicating that, about 1,990 houses are to be sold by means of a public auction based on their open-market value.

    The government said, the decision to sell the houses was endorsed by the State Executive Council.

    Meanwhile, the labour movement in its reaction stated further that, “The decision of the Kaduna State Executive Council was without recourse to all relevant stakeholders in the state especially the workers of Kaduna State who are the creators of wealth and the legal occupants of these properties.

    “It is rather, very unfortunate that the Civil Servants working for the state government and that are currently occupying these quarters were never given option of first refusal before the extension of offer to the general public.

    “Another area of concern to the public servants of the state, who receives peanut as salaries and wages when compared with those of the political office holders of the state, was the mode of payments for these quarters after being sold to the individual buyers. That is, payment of 25% of purchase price (including 10% non-refundable deposit), must be made to the Kaduna State Government within 90 days of being declared winner. Balance of 75% must be paid by all purchasers within an additional 90 days, thus, all purchasers must effect full payment within 180 days of contract.

    “From the above condition, tell me which Civil Servant of the State can afford this payment? This condition in the first instance is contrary to the provision of the Federal Government Mortgage Bank arrangement of issuing loans to the Civil Servants from all over the federation.

    “We make haste to advice that the Kaduna State Government should borrow a leaf from the Federal Government which in its monetization progromme gave workers who are the legal occupants of government houses an unconditional right/option of first refusal, this is more so that the Federal Government policy was midwife by the selfsame Mallam Nasiru El-Rufa’i”, the statement read.

  • $151m deposits: Bankers, civil servants to face trial

    $151m deposits: Bankers, civil servants to face trial

    EFCC gets go-ahead to seize Yakubu’s $9.772m, 74,000 pounds

    A LIST of suspects who will face trial over the $151million and N8billion found in fictitious bank accounts is in the works, The Nation learnt yesterday.
    On the “long” list are bankers and civil servants, Attorney-General of the Federation Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) said.
    He declined to name the suspects but stressed that the government is interested in knowing how the funds were sourced and lodged in the accounts.
    Malami, who spoke with our correspondent from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said: “But investigation is in top gear and I will not want to jeopardise it by giving out names of those affected.”
    Pressed for more comments, Malami said: “I am not certain of the number now but it is huge because it involved a syndicate.
    “The culprits include civil servants and bank officials who all connived to stash away these recovered monies.”
    He stressed that “no businessman was implicated but the suspects, who are many, are mostly civil servants and bank officials”.
    Another government source said the suspects would be named in court when charges are preferred against them.
    But there were strong indications yesterday that a commercial bank had written the Federal Government, owning up to the lodgment of $136,676,600.51 in a fictitious account with it.
    The bank has promised to remit the slush funds into a dedicated account provided by the government.
    The government official, who pleaded not to be named because of “the sensitivity of the matter”, said: “Before the government released the fact-sheet on the recovery of $136,676,600.51, it got a letter of from a commercial bank owning up that the cash was wired into a fictitious account in one of its branches.
    “The bank also made a commitment to remit the seized cash to a dedicated account which has been provided by the Federal Government. We are expecting the refund from the bank any moment from now.
    “We have the required evidence from the bank with the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation(OAGF).”
    The government source spoke on the investigation, saying “it is almost completed”.
    He agreed that Nigerians were eager to know the suspects, but insisted that “we will release their names only after charges have been preferred against them in court”.
    Also yesterday, a Federal High Court sitting in Kano, presided over by  Justice Zainab B. Abubakar, ordered the forfeiture of the US$9,772,00 and  £74,000 by a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),  Mr. Andrew Yakubu, to the Federal Government.
    The order was sequel to an ex-parte application by the EFCC seeking an interim forfeiture of the recovered money to the Federal Government.
    A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the ex parte application was moved by Salihu Sani, counsel to the applicant.
    The statement said: “In her ruling, Justice Zainab held that the sum of $9,772,000 and £74,000  which are now in the custody of the applicant (EFCC) are in the interim forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
    “On the 3rd day of February, 2017, operatives of the Commission had stormed a building belonging to the former NNPC boss and recovered a staggering sum of $9,772,000 and £74,000 stashed in a huge fire proof safe. On February 8, 2017, Yakubu reported to the Commission’s Kano Zonal Office where he admitted being the owner of both the house and the money recovered.
    “Yakubu is still in custody assisting the investigation.”
    The  Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  on Sunday said the “whistle-blower policy has started yielding fruit as it has so far led to the recovery of US$151 million and N8billion in looted funds”.
    He said: “The looted funds, which do not include the $9.772 million in cash allegedly owned by a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC (which was also a dividend of the whistle-blower policy), were recovered from just three sources through whistle-blowers who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation.
    “The biggest amount of $136,676,600.51 was recovered from an account in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake account name, followed by
    N7billion  and $15million from another person and  N1billion  from yet another.
    ‘’When we told Nigerians that there was a primitive and mindless looting of the national treasury under the last Administration, some people called us liars.
    “Well, the whistle-blower policy is barely two months old and Nigerians have started feeling its impact, seeing how a few people squirreled away public funds.
    “It is doubtful if any economy in the world will not feel the impact of such mind-boggling
    looting of the treasury as was experienced in Nigeria.
    ‘’Yet whatever has been recovered so far, including the $9.8million by the EFCC, is just a tip of the iceberg.”

  • Bayelsa suspends workers’ promotion increments, arrears

    Bayelsa suspends workers’ promotion increments, arrears

    The Bayelsa State Government has put on hold promotion and annual increments of civil servants in all ministries, department and agencies (MDAs).

    The government in a circular to all MDAs signed by the state’s acting Head of Service, Rev. Thomas Zidafamor said the directive should take effect from 2015.

    The document dated February 2, 2017 was among others addressed to the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), all commissioners, permanent secretaries, the chief registrar and the clerk of the stage House of Assembly.

    Zidafamor in a circular, which was sighted by The Nation, also directed all accounting officers to expunge all such promotion and increment arrears from salary vouchers with effect from January 2017.

    He said the action was to enable the government meet up with the monthly wage bill in view of the dwindling financial resources of the state.

    “All permanent secretaries are expected to convey this directive to the parastatals and agencies of government under their ministries and too ensure that this directive is effectively implemented as you will be held responsible for any deviation from the content of this circular”, he said.

    He said directed the permanent secretaries or the accounting officers and the director, finance and supply to sign the nominal rolls, payment vouchers and attendance summary before submission.

    He said: “vouchers and related documents must be submitted not later than 10th day of the month while the monthly MDAs salary summary should be signed by the permanent secretary or head of department or agency not later than the 12th day of the month”, he said.

  • Ogun civil servants to be allocated land for farming

    Ogun State civil servants are to be allocated land for agricultural purposes.

    Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, stated this while speaking to reporters during the visit of the Presidential Task Force on Agricultural Commodities and Production led by Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Dakingari.

    Amosun said the government took the decision as a way to improve food production, ensuring food security and improving workers’ personal income.

    He added that the civil servants will only be free to work on their farms after office hours and public holidays as they will perform their duties during the statutory five working days.

    Amosun, therefore, counselled the state civil servants to take advantage of this opportunity when the scheme is fully on board.

    Explaining the government initiative further, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Steven Ipinniwa, said each  interested  civil servant  will be allocated two hectares of cleared land at designated sites while government will also assist them with input.

  • Excitement as Kogi clears salary backlogs

    Excitement as Kogi clears salary backlogs

    Commercial banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATM) were on Wednesday thronged for cash withdrawals by civil servants in Lokoja while celebrating the clearance of their salary backlogs by the state government.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the government had promised to clear the backlog salaries of all the genuine workers and pensioners in the state by Dec. 20.

    NAN Correspondent, who monitored the development, noted that bank premises and ATMs in Lokoja metropolis were crowded with civil servants waiting patiently with excitement for their turn to get cash withdrawals.

    Some of them who spoke with NAN expressed gratitude to the governor for fulfilling his promise to clear their backlog salaries.

    Mr Al-Hassan Jimoh, a worker at the Ministry of Information, said he was very happy that he got 9 months’ salary alert on Tuesday.

    “In spite of all the hardships, I believed in Gov. Bello because I was convinced that he was doing the right thing,” Jimoh said.

    A Level 12 officer, at the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Monday Eleshin, said he received alert for 10 months’ salary backlogs on Tuesday.

    “This government has really tried through the screening because some people were collecting up to 30 persons’ salaries which is what they are investigating. I am grateful to our governor,” Eleshin said.

    Mrs Kemi Dada, a Sanitation Board official, said though the screening was painful for a while, it has finally yielded positive results.

    “We thank Gov. Yahaya Bello for his commitment to making good his promises by paying all genuine workers in the state; my salary has been paid up to December,” Dada said.

    However, some local government workers and pensioners in the state told NAN that they were yet to receive any payment alert.

    Munirat Oju, a worker at Lokoja Local Government, said she had not been paid since February even when her name had been cleared during the screening since August.

    She urged the state government to prevail on the local government administrators to clear the salary backlog of all the genuine workers at the local government level.

    A pensioner, Mr Usman Jimoh,  said he had not been paid for 12 months in spite of his clearance during the screening and verification.

    Jimoh, who is a retired Permanent Secretary, said he retired in active service as required by law in July 2016, after 35 years of active service but had never received any pension till date.

    “The government is owing me 12 months salary backlog; Seven months salary in active service from Jan. to July and 5 months pensions from Aug. to Dec. 2016. I have been living by people’s help.

    “Though the government is doing a good job to clear the mess in the civil service, a lot of people have suffered unnecessarily in this case.

    “If you are looking for ghost workers, I do not think the permanent secretaries should be the target; it is unfair, we are suffering unnecessarily,” Jimoh said.

    Isaac Adeleye, another pensioner, said the last pension he received was in February 2016 in spite of being screened thrice.

    “I do not think any genuine civil servant and pensioner should be deprived of their entitlement because it is our sweat,” Adeleye said.

  • Fayose to build ICT centre for civil servants

    Fayose to build ICT centre for civil servants

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has promised to establish an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre for civil servants to boost their capacity and service delivery.

    The governor said this at a weekend meeting with primary school teachers.

    He noted that the centre would give workers the opportunity of undergoing training all-year around.

    Fayose, at the meeting, unfolded his plan to employ more teachers, and involve teachers in building and rehabilitating schools.

    The governor pledged to convoke a women conference to empower more women and give them more leadership positions.

  • Fayose: dead civil servants’ names on Ekiti’s payroll

    Fayose: dead civil servants’ names on Ekiti’s payroll

    The names of many dead civil servants are still on Ekiti State’s payroll, Governor Ayo Fayose said at the weekend.

    He warned that officials in charge would henceforth be held responsible to prevent financial leakages, which, he said, are robbing government of millions of naira.

    According to the governor, such funds supposed to be channelled to other places for people’s benefit.

    The governor handed down the warning at the weekend during a meeting with Directors of Finance and Accounts, Directors of Administration, Chief Internal Auditors and others from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    The meeting was convened to find solutions to the problems associated with generating wholesome nominal and pay rolls by the MDAs.

    Fayose added that his administration might stop the central payment of state and local government workers’ salaries.

    Local governments, he said, would be encouraged to pay their workers at their own levels.

    Warning against what he called “careless endorsement of documents by civil servants, Fayose frowned at a situation whereby people that had left the service or are dead still had their names on the nominal roll.

    He said: “Unfortunately, such names are still not removed when the pay roll is being prepared as well. Why should we be spending our scarce resources wastefully?

    “We are no longer going to tolerate the issue of buck-passing, where someone would claim he is not the one that generates the nominal roll and so does not properly go through before preparing the payroll.

    “Henceforth too, the nominal and pay rolls must be properly scrutinised by the internal auditors before being signed. The system has adequate checks and balances already in place and if not for collusion by concerned public servants, no sharp practices could take place.

    “It is advisable that every officer properly goes through any document before signing such, as the person who endorses any document is going to be held responsible in case of any trouble,” he said.

  • Borno uncovers 10,000 ghost workers

    Borno uncovers 10,000 ghost workers

    Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno said the state government had uncovered more than 10, 000 ghost workers out of the 25,000 civil servants in the state’s work force.

    The governor said in a radio and television broadcast in Maiduguri on Wednesday that the workers were uncovered after a verification to determine the actual size of the state’s work force.

    ”You may recall that in December 2015, while presenting the 2016 budget at the House of Assembly, I promised to embark on staff verification to determine the actual size of the state civil service.

    “We set up a high powered committee chaired by the Secretary to the State Government to carry out a verification of the state civil service,” he said.

    Shettima said that the committee verified only 19,763 workers out of the 25,000 workers on the state payroll.

    “To finalise the exercise, a consultancy firm was hired for biometric data capture of the workers.

    “As of today, 11, 397 workers have been dully captured as being bonafide staff of the state.

    “Others — about 7,392 — workers have yet to be captured, out of which 4,000 workers have issues with their banks.

    ”There are also about 3,000 workers who failed to comply with the guidelines on the filling the verification forms,” he explained.

    The governor said he had directed the committee to sort out all those issues within one week to enable the state to pay those workers already captured.

    Shettima pointed out that entire salary of the 11, 397 workers captured stood at N1.129 billion as against the usual N2.7 billion.

    “The entire salaries of the 11, 397 workers already captured stood at N1.129 billion; that is about N2.258 billion for the two months pending.

    “I have directed the Ministry of Finance to pay the two months’ salaries to those workers.

    ”I have also urged them to ensure weekly payment to all those to be captured and updated as we move on.

    ”The two months salaries of N2,258 billion are not even up to our former N 2.7 billion wage bill for one month.

    “Even if the wage bill goes to N1.7 billion or even N2 billion, we can still save up to N700 million monthly” he said.

    He commended the labour leadership in the state for its understanding throughout the verification.

  • ‘Civil servants to get homes from govt estate’

    Fresh  hope for civil servants, who want to own houses, appeared on the horizon last week as President Muhammadu Buhari kicked off the first estate project under the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Programme at Apo Tyafi District of the Federal Capital City, Abuja.

    The Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank (FHAMB), a subsidiary of the FHA, has been named mortgage banker to the scheme. The President was represented at the ceremony by the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustapha Baba Shehuri.

    In a document obtained by The Nation, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, it was learnt,  expressed regret that a large proportion of civil servants, who did not benefit from the immediate past sale of government houses lived in slums and unplanned settlements because of their inability to own houses or rent decent accommodation in planned layouts.

    She said the FISH initiative was conceptualised to provide cost effective and affordable housing for various categories of workers as a way of uplifting their quality of life during and after service.

    Mrs. Oyo-Ita said the delivery of affordable housing under the programme was predicated on multi-sectoral support and cooperation, which include group land acquisition from the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the states, provision of infrastructure and financial support through strategic partnership, cost effective pre-structural drawings and designs, as well as special intervention funds from the Federal Government using the expertise and skills of civil servants to supervise, develop and implement housing delivery.

    She said the FISH programme, operating under the umbrella of the Federal Integrated Staff Housing Cooperative Society, has forwarded applications for land to the FCTA and would be doing same to other states nationwide. “By that arrangement, the high cost of land acquisition and the difficulty in processing title deeds that added to the excessive cost of houses per unit at completion would be assuaged,” she stated.

    Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the OHCSF, FHAMB would be the custodian of the FISH programme with funds accessed by beneficiaries of the scheme through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) loan window. FHAMB will disburse funds to contractors and developers as approved by the FISH Project Committee and the FHA. It will also assess civil servants for mortgage facilities for houses and package mortgages for those qualified in all the states as well as collect loan repayment from beneficiaries. FHAMB will be the project financier through collaboration with the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company. FISH will be run by a 15-member committee headed by a Permanent  Secretary in the OHCSF, Mr. S. K. Y. Adelakun. It has seven other permanent secretaries as members as well as FHA’s Managing Director, Prof Mohammed Al-Amin and the FHAMB Acting Managing Director, Alhaji Hayyatudeen Atiku Awwal.

    FISH is expected to leverage on Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to acquire group land allocations at reasonable cost to make the houses affordable. It will use the Public Private Partnership (PPP) window to build houses and harness the existing potentials of such partnerships to provide massive and affordable housing for Federal civil servants before and after retirement. FISH will also consolidate existing unutilised group land allocations to the cooperative societies of MDAs and related Federal civil servants associations into the Federal Integrated Staff Housing Cooperative Society Limited for the purpose of effective coordination and utilisation for optimal benefit of staff.

    The programme will provide land and infrastructure for proposed estates while the houses would be built in phases. Buyers are expected to provide 20 per cent equity of the cost of their houses, which shall be domiciled in FHAMB while the remaining 80 per cent shall be financed through mortgage. The monthly repayment by beneficiaries shall either be remitted to FHAMB through its correspondent banks monthly or have their salary accounts domiciled in FHAMB.