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The Kogi Government on Friday pledged to clear the salary arrears of all workers that were paid 50 per cent salaries as soon as funds available and therefore called for workers’ cooperation.
A statement by the Director General, Media and Publicity to the Governor, Mr Femi Fanwo, thanked the affected workers for their understanding and promised to pay all arrears as soon as government has enough funds.
According to him, we need the cooperation of all to achieve economic prosperity for the state; It is our responsibility to pay full salaries and workers’ right to get their full pay, but we must always have a blue line of industrial understanding.
Fanwo said the Government was able to pay 100 per cent to all pensioners with arrears because of their social situation, adding that they had also paid full salaries to Judiciary and the state’s tertiary institutions, and also cleared all subventions.
He, however, said that all other categories, starting from political office holders were paid 50 per cent salaries due to the shortfall in allocation and non-payment of the Budget Support Fund from the Federation Account.
“Over the months, we have been able to pay full salaries through heavy borrowing and funds from our significantly improved Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
“When we saw the situation, we invited labour for dialogue as continued borrowing to pay salaries will not only be unsustainable, but will also affects other sectors of the economy.
“It would have been insensitive on our part to default paying our highly respected and understanding civil servants on the excuse of not having enough funds.
“We thank them for their understanding and pledge to clear the arrears as soon as funds are available.
“Things would have been worse if we did not act with patriotic firmness to remove unintended beneficiaries from our payrolls as well as ghost names,” Fanwo said.
The director general, therefore, commended the workers for their understanding and reaffirmed government commitment never to take them for granted, wishing the Muslim faithful a happy Eid el-Kabir celebration.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Organised Labour in Kogi had in a separate statement rejected the payment of 50 per cent salary to their members by the State Government.
Credits: Stephen Adeleye | NAN
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