The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nov

  • Sweepers seek payment of Nov, Dec salaries

    Street sweepers yesterday besieged the Lagos State Secretarial at Alausa, Ikeja, protesting the non-payment of their November/December salaries.

    They said they were back at the secretariat because of the non-fulfilment of the promise to pay them by last Friday.

    One of them, Oluwatobi Adeyeye, said they met the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Biodun Bamgboye, with the head of Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and other top government officials in attendance.

    He said: “We called the permanent secretary on the phone, but he did not respond. He also refused to respond to our SMS.

    “We visited him in the office last Thursday, but we couldn’t see him after waiting for hours, because he was not in.

    “On Sunday, we sent him a message telling him we were coming today (yesterday). This is why we are here.”

    Speaking with reporters after addressing the protesters, Bamgboye said the ministry started paying their November salary yesterday. He said approval had been received for December salary on which work is ongoing.

    He said a list of those who did not receive alert by Thursday evening should be sent to him on Friday.

    Some of the protesters confirmed that they had started receiving alert for November salary, “but we express sadness over the delay in the payment of our salary. We urge the permanent secretary to ensure we receive our December salary in time.”

    Bamgboye said their grievances were being addressed, blaming the problem on transiting from one scheme to another.

    The sweepers were recruited by LAWMA before they were deployed to the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI).

    “The scheme under which they have been operating is not the same with the civil service scheme. So, the process of transiting from one scheme to the other is responsible for other problems they have highlighted. It is being addressed. It is a transition problem,” Bamgboye said.

  • Kwara councils to get N2b loan for Nov salary

    The 16 council chairmen in Kwara State have decided to obtain a N2.1 billion loan from commercial banks to pay November salary and settle other needs.

    According to them, this followed the delay in November allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

    Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development Haruna Tanbiri Muhammad spoke in Ilorin after the emergency Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC).

    He said the chairmen applied for the loan in anticipation of November allocation, noting that the delay in disbursement from FAAC had aggravated workers’ suffering.

    He explained that the salary of State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) teachers stand at N900 million, and pensions N278.9.

    Muhammad maintained that the statutory allocation is N2.1 million, as against N1.6 million in October, and 10 per cent IGR is N37.3 million.

    The commissioner said N280 million was deducted at source as repayment for the N4.8 billion loan councils obtained in 2015 to pay salary, adding that they shared N676.8 million in November.

    “The Kwara State government has not received its November allocation from the federation account and the council chairmen felt getting a loan became necessary to alleviate workers’ plight,” he added.

  • Abia Poly workers to get Nov pay ‘soon’

    Acting Rector of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Prof. Friday Ezionye Eboh said staff of the polytechnic would soon be paid their November 2016 salary. This is even as he has assured that the institution under his watch would not experience any industrial dispute.

    Eboh in a maiden press conference with newsmen at the conference room of the polytechnic  described industrial action as an ill wind that blows anyone in the institution any good.

    According to him, the school since his assumption as the acting rector has saved a lot of monies for the institution through plugging of so many leakages and wastages used by being individuals to siphon monies that were supposed to be remitted into the school’s coffers.

    He said that the current steps taking by his administration was to ensure that there won’t be any breach of the institution’s academic calendar as it were the case in the past.

    “We are here to institute a system that works and outlive us and others that will assume office as the head of the institution. We want to ensure that the students get effective delivery of services which they paid for. It is our resolve that the school get back to winning and glorious ways.”

    The rector said that his administration was exploring other avenues to generate more money for the school in order to compliment the monthly subvention to the school by the state government.

  • Civil servants yet to get Oct, Nov, Dec salaries

    Civil servants yet to get Oct, Nov, Dec salaries

    The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) is spoiling for a fight with the Federal Goverment over the no-payment of October, November and December salaries.

    Its Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, told reporters in Lagos, that the government should use the N9.2 billion earmarised for stores to pay the salaries.

    “As we write, information reaching the union from informed quarters indicates that about 30 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) will not pay December 2014 salaries to their employees. It is very unfortunate that since October 2014, the Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Works, Labour and Productivity as well as a host of other MDAs have not paid salaries to their workers,” he regretted.

    Lawal, who lamented that the reality on ground was that thousands of civil servants and their dependants would celebrate this year’s Christmas and New Year in sorrow, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene on the matter and ensure that thousands of civil servants are paid their October, November and December salaries before the festivity  to put smile on their faces.

    “We call on the government to use the N9.2 billion earmarked to buy stoves for rural women to offset the October and November salary as well as that of December 2014. We cannot understand how N9.2 billion would be spent on stoves while workers who toil daily to keep the wheels of Government functioning cannot be paid their meagre salary,” he said.

    The labour leader recalled that last year, more than 40 MDAs could not pay December salaries to their workers and when the union raised the alarm, government officials were quick to deny the development prompting the association to publish the names of the MDAs that were involved in the non-payment of salary saga.

    According to him, based on this sad experience of last year, one would have expected that serious steps would have been taken to ensure that the ugly scenario did not repeat itself.