•Let Xmas be merrier for workers
Why should the wage bill of a state shoot up after the discovery and delisting 5000 names from the payroll as ghost workers? Why should 21 council areas have nothing to show for the 44.7 billion they shared in two years? Why should a state with a monthly wage bill of N3.5 billion be shopping for N30 billion to clear two month’s salary arrears?
The above, and many more, are the posers thrown at Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello by James Abiodun Faleke, a House of Representatives member and running mate to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the November 21, 2016, Kogi governorship election, the late Prince Abubakar Audu.
In a letter to the governor entitled: “A passionate appeal for you to alleviate the people’s suffering this xmas”, Faleke alleged that public servants in the Confluence State were being denied the dividends of good governance, which formed the plank of the APC electioneering campaign in 2015.
According to the letter, Governor Bello has been economical with the truth on funds accruing to the state from the Federation Account and the application of such revenue.
For instance, Faleke said it stood logic on its head for a state that was picking a monthly wage bill of N 2.6 billion prior to a verification exercise that detected 5000 ghost workers to be paying N3.5b after the verification.
The letter reads: “Shortly after you came in, you embarked on a staff verification exercise which you claimed was aimed at weeding out ghost workers from the payroll of government, thereby freeing more funds for social and infrastructural development.
“You were applauded for taking that positive step aimed at repositioning our state. However, the people’s enthusiasm as to whether the exercise would succeed or not began to shrink when you prolonged the programme to almost two years without paying any of the workers, leaving mass hunger and angst in the land.
“Some died in the process, while most of the workers went through unimaginable stress and humiliation all in the name of a staff verification exercise that till date has been more of burden than blessing to the state.
“Under the previous administration before you started your verification exercise, the wage bill was in the region of N2.6 billion per month, excluding local government wages and when you concluded the verification, you gleefully told the world that your administration had successfully discovered over 5000 ghost workers from the workforce and that you would begin to save at least N1.5 billion monthly through the exercise.
“Surprisingly, Your Excellency, your administration is now claiming your monthly wage bill is around N3.5 billion! So, where is the money recovered from the 5000 ghost workers discovered? If the wage bill under Governor Idris Wada was N2.6 billion, I think your own wage bill should come down to around 1.5 billion naira and not skyrocket to 3.5 billion naira monthly.”
Describing the verification as a waste of time and resources, the federal lawmaker alleged that the principal and vice principal of the secondary school attended by the state’s finance commissioner, were among those delisted from the wage bill as ghost pensioners by the panel that carried out the verification.
Faleke alleged: “Your screening committee did not help matters by declaring bonafide workers and pensioners, ghost workers. So, it is even difficult to know the real bonafide workers and the exact number of the state workforce.
“A critical example is the case of the principal and the vice Principal that taught your Commissioner of Finance, Idris Ashiru, in secondary school. Mr. Isiaka Aina Sule (Principal) and Mr. Christopher Ayo Olubunmi (Vice Principal) were respectively declared ghost pensioners. They are owed 23 months as we speak.”
He described as unfortunate that a screening on which the governor spent N1 billion of the taxpayers’ money ended up as an exercise in futility.
Recalling how he and the late Prince Audu dislodged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration from the Lord Lugard State House in Lokoja, Faleke noted: “It is for these reasons, with very deep pains in my heart and with all sense of responsibility, that I decided to write you this personal letter on the hard times being experienced by the generality of the citizenry of our dear state under your watch.
“I decided on this noble path as a principal stakeholder, who devoted time, energy, finance and risked my safety to crisscross the nooks and crannies of Kogi with our late leader, Prince Abubakar Audu to campaign; through an aggressive marketing of our program of action to the long suffering people of our dear state.
“As Your Excellency is very much aware, the people trusted us and gave us their overwhelming mandate, faithfully handling over the reins of government to our dear party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) – for a complete positive turnaround of the fortunes of the state.”
On discrepancies in the state finances, Faleke urged the governor to explain why a whopping N30 billion is required to settle unpaid arrears after telling the whole world that his administration was owing only two months of salary arrears.
Faleke said: “Only recently, your government promised to pay all the workers before the end of the year based on the final release of the Paris refunds but surprisingly, your commissioner for Finance was quoted to have said that the state government needs N30 billion to clear all outstanding salary arrears and pensions.
“Now could the N30 billion be the value of the said two months arrears your government is claiming to owe workers? What is really happening? Right now, some states have paid December 2017 salaries ahead, while some have approved the 13th month salaries with bonuses. But, in Kogi, the workers are not even sure if they are workers or not. Most of them are owed over 18 months, while pensioners are crying to be paid.”
Alleging that the 21 local government areas have not justified the more than N45 billion allocated to them in the past two years, the House of Representatives members accused the governor of short-changing the councils.
He said: “Your Excellency, the local government areas under your appointed administrators have received over N45 billion since you assumed office (See Table 1). Yet, there is nothing to show for it. Though, it is common knowledge that your administration releases an average of N10 million per month to these administrations from their allocations.
“The question is, what do you do with the rest of the monies meant for these local governments after giving your administrators their usual monthly N10 million handouts from the over N100 million that accrue to each of them as monthly allocations?
“The local government salaries that are supposed to be paid from those allocations are not paid. And no developmental projects taking place in any of these local governments.”!
Backing with his allegations with two tables, one showing what accrued to the council areas and the other the earnings of the state from internal and external sources, Faleke claimed the state got over N20 billion from the Federation Account and from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He said: “It may also interest Your Excellency that your administration has received over N200 billion as at today from Federal Government and Internally Generated Revenue sources respectively (See Table 2).
“The question is what you have done with such a humongous sum of money in a state where people are daily dying of hunger and committing suicides.”
Faleke, who warned that the failure of the government to live up to the promises of the APC to people could have grave consequences for the party in the Northcentral state, said: “Are we not playing on the sensibilities of the people as a party?
“Be informed, Your Excellency, that the image of our party, the APC, in Kogi State has been destroyed to such an extent that other parties in the state are now being emboldened take over power.”
He, however, urged the governor to rededicate him to the service of the people, saying: “It is not too late to make amends. You can start from this December by ensuring that workers and pensioners received their dues promptly.
“Then you can now follow up by abandoning the regime of profligate spending and embracing the noble path of development through aggressive road construction networks across the state, massive infrastructural facilities, provision of funds for the development of our health and educational sectors respectively among others.”
“That is the way to start cleaning the Augean stable that Kogi has become, unfortunately.”
According to Faleke, the performance of the governor must have disappointed those who helped him into office after the logjam created by the demise of Prince Audu before his declaration as the winner of the last Kogi governorship poll.
