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Tag: Salaries

  • Atiku clears air on alleged accumulated salaries owed workers of broadcast outfit

    Atiku clears air on alleged accumulated salaries owed workers of broadcast outfit

    After days of silence, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has reacted to claims that he is owing some foreign workers recruited for his media company, GOTEL.

    In a statement today, his media office rebutted the claim, saying “Nothing can be further from the truth”.

    It emerged from the statement that money to pay the workers of Gotel, both local and foreign was given to their recruiter, John Chiahemen, a famous journalist and that the matter had once been reported to the police. The statement claimed Chiahemen had since disappeared.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, the funds dedicated to the payment of salaries of staff, both local and expatriates that were engaged by Chiamehen himself were made available to him. All those concerned are advised to contact Mr Chiamehen accordingly”.

    “To retool its operations, Gotel had in 2013 hired one Mr John Chiahemen to lead the planning, design, build-out and rollout of TV Gotel Africa to be based in Abuja.

    “To this end, Chiamehen was given a free hand by the founder and board of the company to run the affairs of Gotel.

    “Requisite resources, as requested by Chiamehen were made available. On his own part, Chiamehen had committed to a revenue profile of N150 million, among others.

    “But by 2016, there were concerns that the Chiamehen management was only long in promises and short in performance, prompting the then board to empanel an adhoc visitation committee to examine the state of the company. The findings of that committee were damning.

    “Consequently, the committee recommended the need for a comprehensive audit of the company. The audit revealed serious fiduciary infractions by the Chiamehen led management.

  • Payment of salaries not achievement- Borno Gov.

    Payment of workers’ salaries of and pensions cannot be considered achievement, Borno Governor Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has said.

    Speaking after he approved the early payment of December 2019 salaries in the middle last week to enable Christians prepare for the Christmas celebration, the Governor said he has never considered payment of salaries a part of his achievements but as payment of debt.

    “I have never considered payment of workers’ salaries as achievement but rather as payment of debt, in this case, government paying for the services rendered by law abiding civil servants who signed contracts with the government as employees to work for hours, days and weeks and be paid for their work at the end of the month.

    “The workers are in government debt when they work, and government pays that debt by paying salaries. Payment of debt is never an achievement, it is an obligation and this why we ensure that before 26th of every month, workers and pensioners get paid. The workers on their path must also be up and doing so that they can earn these salaries”, Zulum said in a press statement issued in December 2019 by his Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy, Malam Isa Gusau.

     

  • FG adjusts salaries of military, other security personnel

    Members of the armed forces and other security outfits are to benefit from the consequential adjustment of workers’ salaries agreed by the federal government and labour on Friday.

    Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige told reporters in Abuja after the signing of the deal that the new structure would take immediate effect.

    He said: That the agreement reached with organised labour on consequential adjustment of salaries for workers. Ngige said that because the security personnel are not members of the civil service, their adjustments would be communicated to them through the appropriate channels.

    Acting Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi- Esan and Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige signed on behalf of the federal government while President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba and the Chairman Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Simon Anchaver (JNPSNC) signed for organised labour.

    Nige said that full implementation of the new national minimum wage law takes immediate effect. “It is my pleasure to report to you that the various conciliatory meetings that we instituted since the ninth, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and today (yesterday) had yielded the desired fruit.

    This morning we concluded all our negotiations and produced a Memorandum of Terms of Settlement from the conciliation.

    “The terms of settlement is in relation to the consequential adjustment of other wages following the new national minimum wage of N30, 000 as enshrined in the national minimum wage Act 2019.

    For these meetings, I acted as chief conciliator ably assisted by my Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo.

    “Today, we have put an end to all the negotiations, we deliberated and we have arrived at an agreement. “The consequential adjustments/ increases agreed upon for now are as follows.

    We have the group one personnel or what we call Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS). The meeting agreed, having reviewed the increase in the lowest paid person in this wage structure at N30, 000 from Grade Level one Step one that the grade level 07 officers should move up by 23.2 percent in their wages.

  • National Assembly slashes over 3000 legislative aides’ salaries

    The National Assembly has reduced the salaries and allowances of over 3,000 legislative aides in its employ.

    The aides, who work under 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, started receiving their letters of appointments last June while some are still expecting theirs.

    According to a report by The Nation, several aides who got their appointment letters from the National Assembly Service Commission between June and August have been directed to return the letters and collect fresh ones reflecting sharp reductions in their salaries.

    The fresh letters being issued to the appointees indicate reductions in the annual basic salaries of the legislative aides, ranging from about N500,000 to N1,000,000, from their annual basic salaries.

    For instance, a legislative aide on Grade Level 13 who was issued a ‘Letter of Appointment’ on August 1, this year, had N3.3 million as his annual basic salary, but a new ‘Letter of Appointment’ dated September 12 indicated that the salary of the same Grade Level is now N2.6 million per annum – a shortfall of N700,000.

    Some of the affected legislative aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that several billions from the National Assembly’s N125 billion budgetary allocation for this year may have been committed to contracts.

    The expenditure, they said, included refurbishment of offices with items like photocopiers, computers, printers and refrigerators, which were sold to members of the Eighth National Assembly.

    They said the National Assembly was also working to provide new official cars for all legislators who resumed last June.

    A source said: “The management never bothered about the scope of contracts being given out for replacement of several items, including office furniture that are still in near-mint condition. We reliably gathered that billions have been committed to these projects.

    “It usually takes about one year before any set of legislative aides come together and elect leaders under the banner of the National Assembly Legislative Aides’ Forum (NASSLAF). The National Assembly knows that we are more or less in disarray, without a united voice, especially now that many newcomers are still waiting for their employment letters.

    “Nonetheless, arrangements are in top gear for more billions to be expended on settlement of car supply contracts and the huge insurance packages that go with it as well as other humongous welfare items.”

  • TNG Exclusive: Lawmakers angry over excessive ‘N200k’ bank charges on monthly salaries

    TNG Exclusive: Lawmakers angry over excessive ‘N200k’ bank charges on monthly salaries

    By Emmanuel Ovuakporie
    … point an accusing finger at House leadership
    … insist bank rip-off lawmakers of at least N72m monthly
    Some members of the House of Representatives are angry with the House leadership over alleged excessive bank charges of N200,000 monthly from their monthly emoluments due to Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC’s delay in disbursing funds to first-line charge government bodies.
    TNG findings revealed that on a monthly basis FAAC does not disburse allocations until the 9th and 12th of every other month.
    This development made the House leadership to strike a deal with an old generation bank to pay all Reps either on the 25th or 28th of every month until , FAAC releases their money by either 10th or 12th of the ensuing month.
    It was also gathered that within the stipulated period of delay interest should be charged on individual salary account of the lawmakers.
    But this is not going down well with the lawmakers who claimed it was a rip-off as the commission charged on the said salary accounts are outrageous.
    One of such lawmakers who hails from the South-South geo-political zone but chose to speak under the condition of anonymity said:
    “It’s horrendous that in ten or twelve days we are made to cough out as much as N200k because our leaders failed to reason beyond their nose.
    “Before now another old generation bank (name withheld) had handled our salaries in the eighth Assembly and the bank use to give us ten days of grace but this time around in the ninth House they start counting days immediately the newly commissioned old generation bank pays us.
    “Some of us are of the opinion that the leadership must have been part of the deal because if you calculate it by 360 members what they deduct is almost N72m monthly.
    Another lawmaker who spoke in the same vein declared that”we know a deal must have been struck with our leaders but the question is why was the salary account moved from Sun Trust a new generation bank in this new dispensation that gave us days of grace to an old generation bank that is charging us so much.
    In the eighth Assembly we enjoyed a grace period of ten days before such charges are made but the newly commissioned old generation bank starts charging us immediately we are paid.
    “We are beginning to smell a rat in this whole new arrangements because we may have to demand an exhaustive explanation on this unusual bank charges, the lawmaker added.

  • Don’t attempt traveling out of Nigeria if you owe workers salaries, Nnamdi Kanu warns S’E govs

    …condemns xenophobic attacks in South Africa

    The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has warned governors who owe workers in their states to forget about traveling out of the country.

    This is even as the IPOB leader said that his group would continue to hold Nigerian politicians accountable for the services they were elected to render by the electorate.

    Kanu, who spoke on Saturday during an interview with Rose Peter Graham, the anchor of ‘Rose On All Sides,’ on Ben TV, United Kingdom, said very soon, all governors in Nigeria who have refused to pay their workers’ salaries, but travelling aimlessly across the world would be stopped from doing so.

    The IPOB leader who spoke to the UK based television station from his temporary base in Germany, also condemned the xenophobic attacks in South Africa, describing it as something that should not be happening in this current generation He said: “Very soon, any governor who has not paid salaries will not come abroad anymore. If you owe salaries you’re not allowed to go abroad anymore. “You bank teachers’ salaries, you bank the salaries of pensioners, you cannot come abroad anymore.

    So this is just the beginning. “We’ll not attack them. We’ll just ask them questions. It is called picketing. It’s allowed within the ambit of democratic rules. “So, if we see you, we’ll ask you what you’ve been doing with teachers’ salaries, nurses’ salaries and why you’ve not been paying people and what are you doing here? “Any governor owing workers once we catch you abroad you’ll tell us what you’ve been doing with the salaries you’re supposed to pay.

    “There’s no time on this earth that any process of agitation will be palatable for everyone or easy for everyone to buy into. When Nnamdi Azikiwe was campaigning for Nigeria to be free from colonial rule, he was sent to prison. “Many people felt he was radical and declined to associate themselves with him. But in the end, he succeeded in freeing Nigeria not knowing that we are jumping from the frying pan to fire.

    “Awolowo was the same thing. He was a firebrand. Many people didn’t like his approach from the beginning, but on reflection and review of what he did and how he managed to accomplish them, people have come to understand that he meant well for his people.

    “So, now that these things are happening, most people would not appreciate it, but I’m sure that in many years to come, historians will look back to what’s happening today.”

    He described Senator Ike Ekweremmadu’s experience in Nuremberg as a family matter within the Igbo people that would be settled in a family way.

  • Kogi guber: Yahaya Belllo reacts to reports of ‘dumping’ APC for Accord Party

    …denies owing 38 months salary arrears
    The Kogi state government has said it has paid salaries for 38 months since it came into office in January 2016.
    The Director General of Media and Publicity to the Governor of Kogi State, Hon. Kingsley Fanwo, stated this in Takete Ide Amuro in Mopamuro Local Government while briefing newsmen after an APC Stakeholders Meeting in the Ward.
    “One of the questions our party members asked during the meeting was about the claim by labour that we are owing workers 38 months salaries.
    “As far as government is concerned, we have paid 38 months salaries starting from September 2015. We have been in office for just 39 months. But we are still owing four months salaries because we started paying from the period we are yet to assume power.
    “We are not in any power play with labour. We will continue to appreciate their understanding and we pledge to clear all arrears as soon as possible.”
    Fanwo said government has struggled to bridge the gap inherited because of the dwindling revenue and contending needs of the people of Kogi State.
    “We know how pivotal salaries are to microeconomics and we also know we owe other sectors of the public a good number of social amenities. Government will continue to manage the contending interests to serve a good number of the population.”
    On the rumored decamping of the Governor to Accord Party, Fanwo said the promoters of the rumour failed to “rehearse their falsehood properly.”
    According to him, “such rumours will fail a major logic lab test.”
    In his words, “It is laughable to insinuate that a Governor that just led our party to landslide and historic victory in the 2019 general elections is about to abandon his bungalow to rent a hut.
    “If this is the kind of propaganda opposition wants to fly with, then they are not ready for the November 2nd electoral battle in the state.
    “Governor Yahaya Bello is the landlord of Kogi APC. Anyone coming is a tenant. Where were those opponents when he built the party into what dwarfed others in the 2019 elections?
    “The people spreading those rumours are political comedians with lazy minds. They are conceding defeats with such cheap jokes.”
    Fanwo challenged Sen. Dino Melaye to go ahead to publish the expenditures of government between 2016 to 2019, saying, “a good student of accounting and common sense will do good by publishing both income and expenditure.”
    He said the Kogi people have seen the Rice Mill the Governor is building and the roads under construction, saying any form of “illogical incitement will be counterproductive.”
    His words: “You can see the executives with me here. These are the people who will determine who flies our party ticket in November. The person they know is GYB and they will go all out to give him a second term.
    “All the people dancing around Abuja are not known to the people. We also thank the Federal Government for giving us 3 boreholes in my ward. No Senator should claim the glory of the APC Federal Government project. Our people are well informed now more than ever,” he said.
    He thanked the people of the community and indeed the State for their solidarity during the assassination attempt on him, saying the action of the “cowards is a mark of their impending loss in 2019.”
    “They could not stand the truth. But we shall show them our security architecture is capable of exposing their evil plans against government officials in the state.
    “We have not even started yet and they are fidgety. Their mouthpiece Senator should know that the people who are candidates of prison are the fraudsters that led the state in the past.”
    Fanwo added that the spinners of the fake news and falsehood about the Governor are people well known to members of the public.
    “We know the promoters of these fake news and propaganda against the person of the Governor and the Government of Kogi State. They are discredited individuals who have been fingered for inducing Judges with dollars; those who threatened to commit suicide in order to implicate others; those who coordinated the killing of our students and innocent citizens and those who turned themselves to monkeys and stayed on the tree for 12 hours.
    “All these ignoble theatrics are well profiled in the minds of our people. They work against their people for political gains. But today, they have been dumbfounded by the success of the Governor at the polls. He has shown the world that the people are solidly with him.”

  • Owing 38 months workers salary: I know I’ve goofed – Gov. Bello

    Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello for the first time publicly admitted that his administration has committed blunder by owing workers between eight and 38 months due to the over two years staff screening exercise he initiated.

    Governor Bello who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja at the 7th NLC quadrennial congress on Thursday in Lokoja said “when a child made mistakes he should admit he made mistakes, we have made mistakes and we are correcting it”

    Onoja who was unusually sober at the ceremony was reacting to NLC chairman’s speech , Comrade Onuh Edoka who said workers were dying in dozens due to the non payment of salaries as the government was owing them between eight and 38 months.

    Edoka had said workers in the state have been reduced to beggars as they could not meet their domestic responsibilities while their children are driven out of school due to non payment of school fees while the condition of pensioners and local government workers some of who he said are being paid “miserable percentages of their salaries” are most precarious.

    Responding, Onoja who said the prolonged staff screening exercise was inevitable as it has brought some kind of sanity to the civil service system in the state, however said government was looking into where it has goofed with a view to correcting it.

    On the percentage payment of local government workers, Onoja said this phenomenon has been existing before the advent of the current administration, a claim which the workers at the occasion responded to by shouting “ no, no ,no, you are lying”

    Beating a retreat, Onoja appealed to the workers to exercise patience with the government as efforts would now be geared towards paying their salaries as and when due pleading with the workers to support the re election bid of Governor Yahaya Bello.

    He however said if by November this year, Governor Bello was not re elected the incoming government will build on the legacy they would leave behind

  • Again, Lagos sweepers protest non-payment of salaries

    Again, Lagos sweepers protest non-payment of salaries

    Sweepers of the Lagos State Community under the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) on Sunday staged another protest to the seat of power in Alausa, the second in two weeks, against non-payment of November/December salaries among other grievances.

    The street sweepers who stormed the area last week said they had to repeat the action yesterday because the promises made to them last week especially over payment of salaries had not been adhered to by the government and that they were suffering as a result.

    According to one of the protesters, Oluwatobi Adeyeye, they protested to Alausa when they held a meeting with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Biodun Bamgboye with the head of LAWMA and other government officials in attendance where they tabled their grievances.

    And the government team promised to get in touch with them on Friday but failed to do so, and every attempt by them to get in touch with the Permanent Secretary through calls and messages were not answered, even when they visited his office on Thursday last week to see him they couldn’t after waiting for hours in his office because he was not around.

    “Yesterday (Sunday) we sent him a message telling him we were coming today if they don’t see us and that is why we are here”.

    Speaking with journalists after addressing the protesters, the Permanent Secretary said the ministry has already commenced the payment of their November salary from yesterday and that approval for the December salary has been received and the ministry was working on it.

    Bamgboye told them that they should compile the names of those who by Thursday evening did not receive alert and bring the list to him on Friday.

    Some of protesters confirmed that they have started receiving alert for November salary but expressed sadness over the delay in the payment of their salaries, urging the Permanent Secretary to ensure that they receive their December salary in time.

    Bamgboye also said the other grievances of the protesters were being addressed, adding that it is a problem of transiting from one scheme to other.

    “The scheme under which they have been operating is not the same with the Civil Service scheme, so the process of transiting from one scheme to the other is responsible for what other problems they have highlighted and it is being addressed; it is a transition problem”, he said.

     

     

     

  • NLC to place governors owing salaries, pensions on “watch list”

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is to liase with the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) to place names of governors in the states where workers are being owed salaries and pensions for several months on a “watch list”.

    NAN reports that the ITUC is the world’s largest trade union federation.

    It was formed on Nov. 1, 2006, out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour.

    Mr Ayuba Wabba, President of the NLC, made this known while addressing the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) at its 17th anniversary on Tuesday Abuja.

    He said that aside “naming and shaming” these governors, the NLC would soon direct Nigeria workers to monitor various airports in the country to stop such governors who may have completed their term from fleeing the country

    “We will instruct workers at the nation’s airports to disallow and disgrace any governors trying to leave the country in order to enjoy themselves overseas.

    “We have issued statements to these governors owing salaries, informing them that they cannot go anywhere to enjoy the monies they have carted away.

    “They will be disgrace and chases away,” he said.

    He said: “instead of using the money to make life good and build the country for the good of everybody, a few elites will embezzle what is meant for all for their personal use.”

    Wabba however assured pensioners that the NLC would not relent it its effort to ensure the issue of minimum pension alongside the minimum wage, was addressed.

    He said that if the government must address the issue of pensioners, it must address the welfare of pensioners, this he said would ensure that workers desist from looting.

    Wabba commended President Muhammad Buhari for the payment of pensions arrears for the Nigeria Airways workers and the 33 per cent increment the pension.