Home » Latest Politics » December salary palaver: FG gave us hunger for Xmas, New Year –Civil servants

December salary palaver: FG gave us hunger for Xmas, New Year –Civil servants

You lied, Govt fires back

BY ISAAC ANUMIHE

As Nigerians  celebrated  Christmas and New Year two weeks ago, thousands of federal civil servants marked the festival in hunger.   This was because they could not match other celebrators cash-for-cash nor could   provide for their families in a season when prices of most consumer items in the market  were hiked..
They alleged that the Federal Government denied them their December salaries and by so doing, impoverished them, and denied them sumptuous celebration.
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) raised the alarm, demanding full payment of their December 2013 salaries or shut down the secretariat.
This, the association encapsulated in a statement on December 30, 2013, saying that thousands of federal civil servants were yet to be paid their December 2013 salaries. They alleged that the affected workers and their families spent Christmas in pain and bore the pangs of hunger.
ASCSN noted that the inability of the federal government to pay salaries had lent credence to the belief that the managers of the public sector economy were “grossly incompetent and rabidly corrupt.”

Don’t give us hunger next time
The statement signed by the union’s secretary, Alade Lawal, called on the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to explain to Nigerians why the federal government could no longer pay its employees.
It added that it had become necessary for the minister to address the nation on the embarrassing situation since she has continued to maintain that the country is not broke.
The union said it was disheartening that the civil servants, who are the least paid in Africa, South of the Sahara, could no longer get their meagre salaries on due date, and the delay was pushing the workers and their unions to the wall.
The union appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to step in and order the Finance Minister to pay civil servants without further delay, and also ensure that such embarrassing situation does not repeat.
They called on the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), civil society groups and prominent individuals to prevail on government to pay members their salaries to avert disruption of services in the public service.

No, we paid you -FG
But the federal government countered the workers position, arguing that it is only two per cent of them that were not paid.
It said that those that were not paid were responsible for the failure because they refused to supply their 10-digit account details required by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“It has come to our attention that an association of senior civil servants has issued a statement protesting the non-payment of their December 2013 salaries as well as some emoluments. We are yet to see the statement but the issue of prompt salary payment is one that the Federal Ministry of Finance has prioritised for several months now.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance has made it absolutely clear that prompt salary payment cannot be compromised for any reason and this has been communicated to all relevant agencies. And we have received feedback from many civil servants who expressed their happiness about the early payment of salaries.
While we investigate this complaint which is yet to be formally communicated, the initial feedback from some senior servants consulted is that government doesn’t owe them any entitlements. So it is clear this is not a generalized problem.
We are aware of a few delays caused by the failure of individual civil servants and their MDAs to update their account numbers to meet the requirements of the CBN approved 10-digit NUBAN account numbers and communicate same to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. But this involves pockets of civil servants, certainly not the entire senior civil servants. Any legitimate inconveniences are regretted,” the Special Adviser to the Co-ordinating Minister and Minister of Finance, said in a statement.
Also, jolted by the statement of the ASCSN is the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Jonah Otunla who confirmed that  the December salary was paid on the 19th and those on Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPIS) got their money immediately, while those on non-IPPIS had their money transferred to their agencies.
“Although we have not, as a ministry, received a formal complaint of delay of salary but we cannot say that we are unaware of some agitations raised in some newspapers.
So, as responsible and responsive organ of government, the Ministry of Finance has deemed it fit to call a press conference. Most of the publications made reference to senior staff association accusing government of non-payment of salaries.  We want to inform the public that salaries of staff are always paid irrespective of the status of the worker. So, we found it a little bit curious to say that the salaries of senior staff are not paid.
I want us to know that government has always placed maximum priority on salary payment. And this is what the government is doing 100 per cent. Government has decided that salaries are always paid on the 20th of the month and we have always adhered to that. The December salary was released on December 19. People that are on IPPIS (Integrated Personnel Payroll System) got their money immediately.

The other agencies that are non-IPPIS we have the money transmitted to their various agencies first and then the arbitration of the payment would be made by those agencies. Also, as a way of informing the public, in October, salaries were paid on the 11th, early enough for people to enjoy the sallah that came up on the 15th. In September and November, just because of the December salary, we also made sure that all salaries were paid by the 28th of the month. Like in any salary administration, we are not unaware of some challenges we normally face, principal of which is the compliance with NUBAN number. That is the uniform account number which central bank made a very contingent point this year. So, some people that have not complied with this still have some issues with the payment of their salaries.”

-Sunwp_posts

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Posted by on Jan 14 2014. Filed under Latest Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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