The Bayelsa Government has reiterated its willingness to
clear the arrears of four month salaries owed to local government and health
workers in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the state
government owed four month salary arrears to members of the Nigeria Union of
Local Government Employees and the Health Workers Union of Nigeria.
The
Commissioner for Information, Mr Esueme Kikile, told NAN on Wednesday that the
state government was working round the clock to pay all outstanding arrears of
salaries. Kikile said that the payment was a sign of appreciation for the
unions heeding the state government’s plea to shelve their planned strike in
June.
“Government wishes to restate its commitment to ensuring that local
government councils fulfill its obligations to their workers without any
further delay.
“It must be noted that the present administration in the state
has demonstrated its commitment to respect local government autonomy and has
implemented zero deduction from local government allocations policy. “However,
government regrets the inconveniences the delay in payment of salaries of the
local government workers and pension for the month of May might have caused.
“Everything is being done to ensure payment of the outstanding salaries. “It is
imperative to state that government is already working round the clock to
resolve the issue once and for all and ensure that there is no future
recurrence,” Kikile said. He said the state government acknowledged the role of
workers in the development of the state and would therefore not do anything to
undermine this critical sector.
However, Chairman of the Association of Local
Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr Chubby Ben-Walson, absolved council chairmen
of blame from the unpaid salaries. Ben-Walson, the Chairman of Yenagoa Local
Government, attributed the inability of the local governments to meet its
salary obligations to workers to the dwindling allocations to the councils from
the Federation Account.
“The situation we are faced with is a nationwide issue
and is not peculiar to Bayelsa. “Allocations to the local governments have been
dropping since last year and funds accruing to the councils have reached near
zero allocation. “The assumption that local government chairmen refused to pay
workers is false, we have cut down on our own welfare, security votes and welfare
of the councillors.
“We are aware of the social contract we have with the
people at the grassroots, and we are not the cause of the problem,” Ben-Walson
said. NAN reports that the two unions had scheduled to embark on strike and
stage street protests on June 24.
TodayNg
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