From Francis Nansak,Lafia
The Nasarawa state Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has described as inhuman and undesirable the continuous delay of salaries of the local government workers in the state.
He vowed that his administration will not rest on its oars, until local government areas in the state pay their workers full salaries before month end.
Engineer Sule made the vow while speaking at the grand finale of the Baraya Vanguard/Engineer A. A Sule Coordinators, awareness and sensitization campaign, for the Nasarawa West zone, which held at the Nasarawa State University (NSUK), on Saturday.
According to him, even though the state government has been able to pay its workers full salaries before the 29th of every month, same cannot be said about workers at the local government level.
To this end, Engineer Sule said his administration is working hard towards addressing certain observed lapses in the financial activities of the councils, assuring that when the on-going exercise is carried out to its logical conclusion, there will be sufficient funds available for local government areas to not only pay full salaries before month end but also pension and gratuity of their retirees.
The governor described as unacceptable, a situation where the councils could not pay a pensioner whose monthly wage is a paltry N15, 000, having spent the better part of his or her life serving the state.
Engineer Sule urged the people of the state to support his administration in order to introduce sanity into the financial conduct of the local government areas.
“In 2012, there was an embargo against employment. Since then, some workers must have died, retired or resigned. Instead of the wage bill to reduce, like that of the state, the wage bill of the local government areas continue to increase,” the governor lamented.
While attributing the fall in revenues at the councils to the negative effect of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Engineer Sule however warned local government chairmen that it’s no longer tenable for them to solely depend on monthly subvention from the Federal Government but that they must evolve means of generating internal revenue.
He added that even though the state government directed the councils to pay one month salary to workers and pensioners, it was meant to cushion their suffering, pending the completion of the on-going screening and verification exercise to ascertain the actual workforce in the councils.
The governor further tasked officials of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the local government level , on the need to support the councils by ensuring that the right thing is done.
Engineer Sule thanked members of the Baraya Vanguard, as well as Engineer A.A. Sule Coordinators, for taking it upon themselves to go round the state in order to show appreciation to the people for electing him as governor of the state.
