The consultant handling payment of teachers salaries in Kogi State, REMITAS, has discovered over 260 double payments in teachers’ salaries in the state.
The chairman of Kogi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mallam Nuhu Ahmed, disclosed this while reacting to Nigeria Union of Teacher’s (NUT) recent communiqué which requested, among other things, the return of payment of teachers’ salaries to their respective Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs).
The SUBEB chairman said it is a Federal Government policy that all payments in Nigeria be carried out through e-payment, adding that the analogue system of payment at the LGEA level is no longer in vogue.
He said authority to return payment of teachers’ salaries to LGEAs rests with the state government and SUBEB. The SUBEB Chairman explained that the agency was mandated to handle teachers’ salaries as a result of fraudulent acts among Education Secretaries and their accomplices.
Payment of teachers’ salaries, he said, is the responsibility of local government councils and therefore, the notion that the state government owes teachers is a wrong perception.
Mallam Ahmed made it clear that REMITAS, an international consultancy firm had been licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to carry out e-payments all over the states in the country.
On issue of omissions and underpayments, the SUBEB chairman said it affected only January and February salaries as a result of errors in account numbers and names, adding that any teacher who is underpaid now should visit SUBEB office for clarification.
He said some persons who were benefitting from the frauds that bedeviled teachers’ salary are instigating NUT against SUBEB, adding that the NUT was infuriated because SUBEB opted to pay the August salary without waiting for bailout which is yet to be received by the state.
The state NUT issued a communiqué recently accusing the state government of being lukewarm towards the welfare of teachers and called for the return of payment of teachers’ salaries to their respective LGEAs even as it called for removal of the SUBEB chairman.
Source: The Graphic
