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Kogi state government has assured civil servants in the state of its commitment to defraying salary arrears with the recent Paris Club Refund in line with its agreement with labour.
The State Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, Asiwaju Idris Asiru disclosed this to newsmen in Lokoja on Friday.
Asiru assured workers that his ministry has concluded plans to start the payments from today.
According to the Finance Commissioner, the 17,748 Civil Servants in the state will be paid three months arrears while pensioners and Tertiary Institutions staff will receive 4 months arrears.
He said 10billion Naira will be used in paying civil servants and pensioners in line with the agreement reached with labour. The State Government received 13.8 billion Naira as Paris Club Refund.
“We thank labour for its understanding. As a honorable and responsible government, we shall honor our agreement with the body.
“Our wage bill was N3.1billion before the Staff Verification Exercise. But today, it has dropped to 2.73billion Naira. We have succeeded in saving over 300 million Naira monthly and 3.6 billion Naira annually which we shall be deploying into providing infrastructure for our people”.
He called on the Media to always verify information before going to press in order to avoid creating “unnecessary friction between labour and Government”.
He said: “We will start paying the first month today. The other two or three months as the case maybe will be done through table payment next week. We have put in place a seamless process to make the exercise convenient and hitch-free.
“This will be done in conjunction with labour whose leadership is satisfied with the development as the exercise will afford those who have issues with the last screening exercises to come forward and to also prepare the state ahead for the new minimum wage when it is finally agreed. So the idea is to protect both the interests of labour and that of the government”.
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