The Kogi
State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Onuh Edoka, says it
is unfortunate that the state government is still not sure of its actual
monthly wage bill, after over two years of a screening exercise that is still
ongoing.
Edoka, who
spoke on Saturday, said, “the state government does not know what the state
wage bill looks like and are not too sure of the activities of those preparing
her wage bill, and now wants to use the table payment to ascertain the true
figures.
” The Kogi
state government is only using the table payment to investigate those preparing
the salaries of workers, when it discovered that the wage bill couldn’t have
gone up even after a tortuous screening exercise that brought hardship on the
workers”.
Edoka said
it is a common knowledge that salaries are no longer prepared by accountants in
ministries and parastatals, but rather by the accountant-general and
auditor-general, who pay from a single source from government house in Lokoja.
In his
words, “It was clearly an argument of labour at the discussion table that the
N2.8billion figures as monthly wage bill of government was on the high side
after two years of screening that saw many people lose their jobs, with several
others cleared and yet to be returned on the pay roll.
” While at
the discussion table, labour engaged the government that what it inherited from
the immediate past administration was N2.6billion as monthly wage bill. We
expressed our reservations on why the wage bill would still be going up, yet
with many workers no longer on the payroll.
“Labour
never made suggestions for table payment but rather it only challenged the
bogus wage bill of the state which it felt unrealistic.
” When we
met at the discussion table, the government through it financial management
team said they will pay three and four months salaries to core ministries and
tertiary institutions respectively.
” We now
asked what was the total implication of the amount they want to pay from the
money received by the government. They now said the total amount to be paid was
N9.7billion, with the state monthly wage bill standing at N2.8billion.
” We now
told them that the monthly figure was outrageous most especially that it
inherited N2.6billion from past administration. We wondered why the wage bill
is this high when several persons have lost job, and others are still not on
the payroll since the screening began over two years ago.”
The NLC
chairman, however, urged those who are defrauding the state using the Kogi
State wage bill, to have a rethink, warning that such practices was only
joepadizing the future of Kogites and the people.
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