Worried by the non-ending issues of salaries payment which has created discrepancies leading to a segment of civil servants and pensioners not receiving salaries for months, Bauchi State Government has constituted a high powered committee to proffer solutions to the lingering problem.
Announcing the constitution of the Committee, on Monday, while briefing newsmen at the end of a meeting held with organized labour, Chief of Staff, Government House, Dr Mohammed Ladan Salihu stated that the Committee is to be headed by the Deputy Governor, Sen Baba Tela while the SSG, Mohammed Sabiu Baba is to serve as the Secretary to demonstrate the commitment of government in solving the problem once and for all.
The CoS further said that “The meeting was subsequent to consultations that have been ongoing between the labour unions and the state government in the last fortnight which culminated to the directive by the Governor summoning the meeting having heard of the entreaties and complaints by the labour unions.”
He added that the meeting was held and chaired by the Governor himself saying that the main worries of the labour unions were the challenges and constraints of the issue of salaries which has been trending in the media for sometimes now.
Ladan Salihu added that “The other issue raised by the labour unions has to do with promotion and advancement in the public service as well as the issue of remittances (deductions that were made but were not seemingly remitted to the relevant quarters, they also raised the issue of the minimum wage. All these issues were discussed exhaustively and the Governor listened patiently.”
The committee according to him is to take a wholistic look at all the issues raised in order to come out with a solution pointing out that other members include all line ministries, political appointees, labour leaders and other technocrats in the service.
He assured that the aim of the administration is to ensure that no civil servant goes home at the end of the month without his or her legitimate salary, the same goes to the pensioners.
In his speech, State Chairman of the Nigeria Labor Congress, Comrade Danjuma Sale, expressed optimism that with what transpired at the meeting, the organized labour in the state will soon get the issue of salaries solved lamenting that some civil servants have not received salaries for months.
He said that “with the new development, we will go back to meet and see the possibilities of withdrawal of the ultimatum given to the government which expires today. We have learnt a lot from the meeting and we are ready to support the administration in seeing to the end of the problem.”
The NLC Chairman also expressed confidence in the ability of the government to pay salaries and entitlements regularly as soon as all the bottlenecks of payroll and nominal roll were corrected and streamlined.
It will be recalled that the organized labour in the state had issued a 14-day ultimatum to the state government to look into the problem of discrepancies in the payment of salaries which has left many civil servants without salaries for months.
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