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Tag: unpaid salaries

  • Osun State, metaphor for unpaid salaries

    ABOUT two months ago, a female retiree of the Osun State public service called to complain about unpaid workers’ salaries, and wanted this writer to wade in, as an advocate of the masses.

    After another caller came up with the same issue, it became imperative to find out what was going on in Osun State. The state truly owes about six months’ salary backlog, and the workers have become restive as a result.

    The Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, attributes the unpaid salaries to the state’s dwindling revenue. For instance, he revealed, revenue from all sources in 2012, including the Federation Account; internally generated revenue; and other accruals, like value added tax, from the Federal Government, yielded N28.4 billion, whereas total wage bill only was N31.6 billion, leaving a deficit of N3.2 billion. The same scenario was repeated in 2013, with a deficit of N10.4 billion.

    It turned out also that dwindling oil revenue has made it difficult for the Federal Government, and 24 (some say 28) of Nigeria’s 36 states, to pay staff salaries. The initial cause of the palaver was the increase of minimum wage to N18,000, unilaterally entered into by the President Goodluck Jonathan Government with the labour unions. It became a kerfuffle when the price of crude oil plummeted, and reduced the revenue that accrued to the nation.

    The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, led by former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, alleged that another cause of the problem was the Federal Government’s squandering of funds due to the states from the Excess Crude Account. But former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, countered that the money was actually paid to states.

    Things have gotten so bad that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is unable to meet $2 billion cash call obligations to its joint-venture international oil corporation partners. Indeed an IOC source alleges that the Federal Government totally mismanaged available crude oil revenue, and misappropriated money meant to execute projects and activities that were not included in budgets approved by the National Assembly.

    Some argue that some state governments embarked on ambitious projects.

    But government is about providing services to the people – and paying some cadres of the citizenry to perform it. And there are some services that the people didn’t ask for, but must be provided nonetheless: You don’t ask for the military or police forces to protect you, before government provides them anyway.

    The same goes for social services like hospitals, schools, and traffic control that will have adverse effect on society if not discharged. You will have a hard time faulting an Osun State Government that fulfills its electoral promises by feeding about 254,000 pupils daily, and providing jobs for about 3,000 cooks, and giving farming and agribusiness a shot in the arm, through the ‘O’ MEALS Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme.

    Neither can you really fight a plan to refurbish the old Osogbo Aerodrome, to provide a hub to freight agricultural cargo from Osun and adjoining states. The airport comes with a repairs hanger where military, private operators and commercial airlines can repair their aircraft. The network of roads around the airport also makes for easy flight connections for passengers and farming cargoes.

    But the sudden drop of oil revenue scuppered the whole thing, bringing unpaid wages in its wake. Because the problem of unpaid wages of government workers is a universal phenomenon in Nigeria, many suggest downsizing of staff. That fails to recognise that employment of workers is also a legitimate social service expected of every government.

    This then brings up the argument that state governments must be allowed to independently negotiate minimum wages with labour unions. If the Federal Government will not pay the salary bills of states, it should not negotiate wages on their behalf. Allowing each state the autonomy to negotiate its minimum wage with labour goes by the name, ‘fiscal federalism.’

    But the Federal Government is too big, to the detriment of states and (especially) local governments. The real interface between the state and the citizens is more at the local government level. Shouldn’t the revenue allocation formula be restructured to the advantage of local councils?

    Indeed, the day of argument for fiscal federalism is here. It is imperative for the Nigerian state to recognise that those who provide the resources must be first partakers in its yield. That must explain why the Niger Delta, whose soil provides the oil and gas that have provided the major source of revenue for the country, complain about being schemed out of the returns from the petroleum resources.

    The Ijaw have therefore expressed a desire for self-determination, having noted that the treaty of 1914, between the Ijaw and the British colonial powers, lapsed in 2014. Fair-minded Nigerian patriots must not ignore this heart cry of the Ijaw – or other nationalities for that matter. All people of goodwill must strive to achieve a more honest interpretation and implementation of the protocols of democratic and federal governance in Nigeria.

    More to the point: State governments that owe salaries must certainly demonstrate the will to pay. They could restructure payment schedules (the way bankers do), and then seek to re-negotiate more realistic minimum wage regime with labour. This way, accrued wage bills are settled, and a future without financial booby-traps, charted.

    And it is not enough to blame the states for unpaid salaries. The Federal Government may have to immediately initiate a rescue plan to pay the salary arrears, to stem the human suffering, before asking the state governments to go and sin no more.

     

    •Oke works for the Osun State government.

  • Bayelsa Council bosses, workers clash over unpaid salaries in

    Local government workers in Bayelsa State are at war with the council chairmen in the state over unpaid salaries.

    It was gathered that, though the governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, was meeting up with the monthly payment of civil servants’ salaries, the executive chairmen were owing their workers.

    Apart from the Brass Local Government Chairman, who was said to have paid May salaries to his workers, others were said to be owing their employees for over three months.

    The workers, it was gathered, planned to shut down the councils to protest their plight, but the government intervened and prevailed on them to shelve their plan.

    The Secretary, Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU), Mr. Lartan Bany and the Chairman of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) said the governor had no hand in their travails.

    He said the local government chairmen admitted that the governor never interfered in their revenue allocations from the Federal Government.

    He wondered why other chairmen could not toe the path of their Brass counterpart, and warned that the worker would embark on strike if the matter is not resolved on time.

    Also, the Bayelsa Democratic Watch Forum (BDWF), blamed the salary crisis on bad management of finances by the chairmen.

    The group, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Mr. Binaebi Femo and Secretary, Mr. Tari Oki, thanked the MHWU and NULGE for calling off their strike.

    Femo, however, said the leadership of the groups resisted pressure from Dickson’s detractors to sponsor the industrial action as a campaign weapon against the governor’s second term bid.

    The group accused the chairmen of using council funds on personal projects, including erecting massive structures in Yenagoa.

    He alleged that the chairmen were collecting loans and overdraft to finance such projects, and called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe the council bosses.

    The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Esueme Kikile, said the government had intervened to ensure that the outstanding salaries of the workers were paid

  • Bayelsa: Council chairmen, workers clash over unpaid salaries

    Bayelsa: Council chairmen, workers clash over unpaid salaries

    Local government workers in Bayelsa State are at war with their eight council chairmen over arrears of unpaid salaries.

    It was gathered that though the Governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, was meeting up with the monthly payment of civil servants’ salaries, the executive chairmen were owing their workers.

    Apart from the Brass Local Government Chairman, who was said to have paid May salaries to workers, others were said to be owing their employers for over three months.
    The workers, it was gathered, planned to shut down the councils in protest for their plight but the government intervened and prevailed on them to shelve their industrial action.

    The Secretary, Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU), Mr. Lartan Bany and the Chairman of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) said the governor had no hand in their travails.

    He said the local government chairmen admitted that the governor never interfered in their revenue allocations from the Federal Government.

    He wondered why other chairmen could not toe the path of their Brass counterpart and warned of a looming strike if the matter is not resolved on time.

    Also the Bayelsa Democratic Watch Forum (BDWF) blamed the salary crisis on the inefficient management of finances by the chairmen.

    The group in a statement signed by its Chairman, Mr. Binaebi Femo and Secretary, Mr. Tari Oki, thanked the MHWU and the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) for calling off their strike.

    Femo, however, said the leadership of the groups resisted pressure from Dickson’s detractors to sponsor the industrial action as a campaign weapon against the governor’s second term bid.

    “The governor on many occasions including the monthly transparency briefing has said that he does not deduct any money from the allocations accruing to the local government councils.

    “So, he cannot be blamed by the mess caused by these chairmen. Workers should not allow themselves to be used by the enemies of the deserved second term project of the governor. They should hold the chairmen and officials of the local government areas responsible for their plight,” Femo said.

    The group accused the chairmen of using council funds to embark on personal projects including erecting massive structures in Yenagoa.

    He alleged that the chairmen were collecting loans and overdraft to finance such projects and called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe the council bosses.

    Also the State Government absolves itself from the crisis in the local government areas and directed the chairmen to fulfill their obligations to their workers without further delay.

    The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Esueme Kikile, said the government had intervened to ensure that the outstanding salaries of the workers were paid.

    He said: “The present administration in the state has demonstrated its commitment to local government autonomy and has the policy of zero deductions from local government allocations.”

    But the chairmen were said to have blamed their inability to pay salaries on the dwindling allocations from the federal government.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Buhari, governors in a meeting

    BREAKING NEWS: Buhari, governors in a meeting

    President Muhammadu Buhari and governors of the 36 states of the federation are currently in a meeting at the Aso Villa in Abuja.

    The proposed meeting between President Buhari and the state governors is expected to provide a solution to the problem of unpaid salaries as witnessed by some states in the country.

    As at the time of filing this report, the meeting has just begun.

     

    Details later …

  • Unpaid salaries: Take political sentiments out – Group warns

    A group of professionals under the aegis of the Progressive Communication and Strategy Think-Tank (PCSTT) on Sunday cautioned politicians against what it described as a “growing politicisation” of the ongoing problem of the unpaid salaries across the country.

    The group called the attention of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and other affiliated bodies to critically examine the condemnable degrees to which the very crucial problem of workers’ salaries in many states of the federation and under the Federal Government is being gradually turned to tool in the hands of politicians to score political points against one another.

    The PCSTT, after its meeting in Abuja at the weekend, said it reviewed the ongoing problems of revenue crisis in Nigeria especially as it affects the welfare of workers.

    In its release signed on behalf of the group by the Administrative Secretary, Mr. Adewale Adegoke, the Think-Tank group said workers must view with disdain and warn politicians not to turn their fate to tools of political brinksmanship.

    “We have in the last few weeks followed with keen interest and utmost attention the painful inabilities of many states of the federation to meet their obligations to their workers. While we recognise the efforts being made by the concerned states to clear the unpaid salaries, we are however miffed by an unsavoury development as politicians now see the development as a tool to play dirty politics.

    “The salary crisis, we believe, is one development that must wake us up from our inertia to fully understand the import of the faulty federation we run; the size and character of our bureaucracies and the urgent need to juxtapose what we earn and what we pay as remunerations vis-a-vis national productivity index,” the group stated

    The group also called the attention of workers across the federation to resist attempts to use their welfare and fate by politicians to score cheap points by embarking on propaganda against one another.

    “The interest of workers is beyond the political ambitions and interests of individuals and groups. This is why workers must stand up to condemn anyone found playing politics with this serious issue.

    “A politician who is genuinely interested in lasting solutions to the problem would not wait till he gets to power or use the plight of workers as bargaining tool to win supports. He should go straight to proffer solutions to end the hardship created by the unpaid salaries,” the PCSTT said.

    The group also called on the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari to accelerate its processes towards resolving the logjam adding that “the government cannot afford to allow the problem to get out of control with its attendant humanitarian complexities before it rises to the occasion”

    “We are confident to say that failure to take decisive actions by the Federal Government at this critical stage will provide rooms for more politicians to see the development as something to play dangerous politics with. This is a purely and national economic issue which must not be toyed with as it has the capacity to throw Nigeria into crisis of unimaginable proportion,” the group concluded.

  • NPDC workers protest unpaid salaries

    NPDC workers protest unpaid salaries

    THE Nigeria Petroleum Development Company’s (NPDC’s) contract workers  yesterday protested the alleged non-payment of their six months’ salaries and bonuses.

     The workers under the aeges of Eriemu Field Workers Forum, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, vowed that they would not resume duties until their demands are met.

    They said the company would not operate until their entitlements are paid.

     The workers, in a letter addressed to the Commanding Officer, 222 Battalion of the Nigeria Army, decried their condition, alleging the non-payment of pending arrears “of last year and this year” as well as the non-provision of personnel protective equipment.

    The letter signed by the forum’s chairman, Mr. Freeborn Adjanakpo and Secretary, Benjamin Ogbidjara reads: “NPDC has proposed to handover surveillance and flow line guards contracts to the communities through the Community Development Board (CDB)  to enable the communities pay the surveillance and flow line guards with effect from January, 2015”.

     The workers, who handle production operation support, maintenance, security surveillance and housekeeping, alleged: “In the meantime, NPDC has neither implemented the GMOU nor funded the CDB to in turn pay the workers since January 2015 and yet they continue to explore crude oil for sale for their self enrichment”.

     The communities have also written several letters to the firm’s managing director without any reply, they said.

  • Unpaid salaries

    Unpaid salaries

    Federal and state governments owing public sector workers should  find means of meeting this obligation

    At the last count, 18 state governments are said to owe their workers their monthly wages. This was confirmed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) last week as it encouraged the state chapters of the beleaguered workers’ body to lead the public servants in protesting the development. It is unfortunate that at a time when the economic situation in the country is biting very hard, governments have shown that they are incapable of fulfilling such a basic obligation, thus subjecting workers and their dependants to untold hardship. When a government is unable to pay wages, it is an indication that all other responsibilities are on hold.

    The failure is not limited to the state governments. Frighteningly, the Federal Government has consistently in the past few months failed in paying staff salaries as and when due, an indication that the inability of the states to pay is a symptom of a deep-rooted national economic malaise that could only be tackled concertedly by all the stakeholders.

    The striking characteristics of a state include having a defined territory and population. The citizenry should thus be made happy and assured that in addition to warding off external aggression, the state is committed to guaranteeing its welfare and thus excite hope of a better and more prosperous future. Lately, the Nigerian state has failed in this regard and it is a major challenge that the Buhari administration will have to confront.

    The states where workers are crying for succour are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kogi, Katsina, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara. They owe their workers more than three months each, thus condemning them to poverty and misery. The public servants have continued to tell tales of woes. Many already have problems with landlords who have threatened to throw them out; others are unable to give family members due medical attention, while yet others have their children and wards attending private schools drop out. Governments exist to wipe away tears, not induce it.

    We are conscious of the explanation that the states have been badly affected by the indiscipline in the management of federal resources and the vicious withholding of statutory allocation from the federal purse to the federating units. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) responsible for sale and revenue accruing from oil has over the past year refused to duly render account for crude oil lifted and sold in the international market. The situation was worsened by the plunge in the price of the commodity. Since budget calculations were based on projections quite different from what we have today, state finances have been hit by the attendant crisis.

    We, however, know that corruption is not only a vice at the centre, but at the state level, too. When the going was good, many failed to plan for the lean days and are now paying the price. As the past government frittered national resources away, so did the state governments. In many, cost of governance kept ballooning without attention to the defective structure of the economy. Governors were often seen moving about within and outside the country with large contingents. On occasions, money was moved out of the country as the state governments wastefully claimed to be touring the world to woo foreign investors.

    It behoves the new government at the federal level to recognise that what has hit the states is partly induced by the ineptitude and corruption at the centre and cannot thus be left to them. It must be duly acknowledged as an emergency calling for concerted attention. Since some states are not that affected, but nonetheless confronted by other challenges, we recommend that the Federal Government should introduce a package of loans for the affected states. Such loans must be paid back to the Federation Account as soon as the situation improves.

    The Federal Government, too, has a duty to lead by example by ensuring that fiscal discipline is introduced and transparency becomes the watchword in the management of the common patrimony. Complaints by state governments about under-declaration of revenue must be immediately looked into and a report released. Only competent and frugal managers should be appointed to run the NNPC and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, among others.

    This is not an era for the business as usual approach to governance. It is also a time to commence the march towards fiscal federalism. Too much resources and powers are concentrated at the federal level, thus making the concept of federalism a huge joke in the country. The mobilisation and application of funds should largely devolve to the federating units. Concentration of resources in the hands and control of a few could only breed leakages, inefficiency and corruption. To boost the health of the national economy, this must stop.

    In the same vein, the Federal Government, the National Assembly and the state governments should work together towards reviewing the laws that prevent state governments from harnessing the resources in their domain.

  • Okonjo-Iweala and states’ unpaid salaries

    Okonjo-Iweala and states’ unpaid salaries

    No one is certain what the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, hoped to achieve when she explained why some states were unable to pay workers’ salaries when they fell due. The federal government, she said happily, was not owing its workers, contrary to speculations in some quarters. But states which owed their workers, she added, disregarded advice offered through the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to prioritise salary payments. According to the minister: “Regarding difficulties in salary payments, certain governors are trying to blame the Federal Government for their predicament. This is wrong. They had been told through the FAAC to prioritise salaries but they chose not to do so, hence the backlog that some states are experiencing. The 50 per cent drop in revenues simply means that salaries should be prioritised. The Federal Government should not be blamed for avoidable mistakes made at the state level.”

    Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s explanation is patronising and tendentious. Was it simply the drop in revenues that accounted for the cash crunch Nigeria is facing? Many analysts suggest that there are other reasons for Nigeria’s financial woes. Some of these are: humongous waste of national resources, intolerable mismanagement of what is not frittered away, and unpardonable corruption, including unlawful election spending and bizarre and indefensible fuel subsidy payments. The minister of course cannot offer any explanation for these. She assumed it was enough that a cash crunch problem already existed, which states should take for granted and mitigate by forsaking all other priorities. One way the federal government has done its own mitigation is to suspend capital budget disbursement since the beginning of the year, the minister said, without bothering to understand whether states would find that option sensible, tolerable or even practicable.

    More importantly, the minister also disclosed that the federal government had had to borrow about N473bn to fund recurrent expenditure, including salaries and overheads, a sum estimated to be a little less than half of the N882bn budgeted for borrowing in 2015. At that rate of borrowing, what are the guarantees that budgetary projections would not be exceeded? And if the federal government had access to such huge borrowings, do states have the same or near half that luxury? Clearly, Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s recipe is not so inspiring. What is at stake here is the reputation of the federal government’s financial managers. While states could have done much better than they have done to lessen the problem of the cash crunch on their people, the federal government has not placed the country on financial ‘war footing’ partly because their laxity has brought the country nearly to its knees.

    The incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari, has his work cut out for him. The economy is prostrate, not simply because of the about 50 percent drop in revenues, as the Finance minister casually said, but largely because of the mismanagement of the economy. The federal government, despite patronising militants to the detriment of the security agencies, has not been able to put a lid on large scale stealing of crude oil, nor on the appalling abuse rampant in the downstream sector. In addition, the federal government has woefully failed to curb its extravagant spending habit. Nigerians know it, despite the government’s best efforts to disguise the catastrophe, and the world also knows it, for they are deeply astounded by the Nigerian government’s poor financial management, policy miscarriage, and general indiscipline. Revenues may have dropped by more than a trillion naira, but the real and bigger problems lie outside oil market volatility.

    Dr Okonjo-Iweala should keep her gratuitous advice to herself. It is obvious that had President Goodluck Jonathan won reelection, as she hoped, many of the country’s assets would have been sold. She alluded to that option in proffering a solution to Nigeria’s cash crunch. On assuming office, Gen Buhari will have to examine all the options available to his government before making a choice. No one expects the current subsidy regime to be maintained. And it is likely some national assets will not be left untouched. But above everything, there will be a number of inquiries into what went wrong in order to have an understanding of how the country came to this horrific pass. It is only after that has been done, and blames apportioned, and punishment meted out, that the public will support the belt-tightening measures the new president will probably place before the country. And to think starry-eyed states creation campaigners hungered for a few more states, a condition upon which they based their support for Dr Jonathan.

  • Edo NMA threatens strike over unpaid salaries

    Edo NMA threatens strike over unpaid salaries

    The Edo State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has threatened to embark on an indefinite strike, if the state government refuses to pay their July and August 2014 salaries.

    The association also expressed anger at the government’s failure to implement the full Consolidated Medical Salary (CONMESS), poor infrastructure, lack of appropriate working tools, poor healthcare delivery and shortage of health manpower in the state.

    NMA State Chairman Prof. Afekhide Omoti, who addressed reporters in Benin, the state capital, said the government withheld the July and August salaries of its members in public hospitals because of their participation in a nationwide strike, at the instance of their national leadership.

    Prof. Omoti, who issued a 21-day ultimatum for the payment of the two-month salaries, alleged that multiple taxation paid by private hospitals and the inefficient management policy had hampered quality healthcare delivery in the state.

    The union leader noted that the gross shortage of manpower in the Health sector had resulted in “work overload for the few available unmotivated hands rendering services in extremely difficult working conditions”.

    He added: “Other states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), apart from Lagos, have paid the salaries. There was a ‘no-victimisation’ agreement with the Federal Government when the strike was called off.

    “We also note that members of other professional unions, including the Academics Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), were paid their salaries despite the fact that they embarked on a six-month nationwide strike.”

  • Tension as Lagos doctors demand unpaid salaries

    Medical doctors under the aegis of Medical Guild, Lagos State chapter, yesterday urged the state government to pay their withheld salaries.

    Its Lagos State Chairman, Dr Biyi Kufo said the salaries in question were withheld because they were involved in a nationwide strike declared by the Nigerian Medical Association, which is the parent body for all doctors associations in the country.

    Kufo, who spoke to journalists in Lagos, said: “The state government should pay doctors’ salaries for three days it joined the Nigerian Medical Association’s declared national strike between April and May in 2012. Also, the salaries of doctors for August were withheld because of another nationwide strike which was held from July 1 to August 25. This is despite sending necessary letters to notify the government concerning the commencement of strike,” he said.

    He alleged that the state government was out to victimise doctors, stressing that it was only doctors in Lagos State that was not paid salaries for the period of strike.

    “All 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja received their salaries. When we complained to the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, he directed us to the state Health Service Commission (HSC), which employed us,” he noted.

    Besides, state government cited a “no work, no pay” policy for its action but this rule was applicable to doctors alone, as other professionals were never made to suffer similar fate.

    He said efforts by the association to resolve the matter did not yield any result. “We sent letter to the governor and meetings were held with the Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris but the matter still persists. A delegation of medical elders, led by Prof Michael Bankole of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) was pointless,” he said.

    Vice chairman, Medical Guild, Dr Salau Oseni said there is more to the issue than meets the eyes because it appeared the government hated doctors, as such wanted to victimise them.

    “The military implemented “no work, no pay” but never did anybody suffer such. But under a democratic setting, this is happening,” he said.

    Oseni said other professionals go on strike without being sacked, adding that a different fate awaits doctors as “they are either sacked or threatened with sack.”