FUK VC defends disbursement of N142m earned allowances

Consequent upon the allegations levelled against the management of the Federal University Kashere, Gombe state, by the Institution’s Joint Action  Committee (JAC) over non-payment of their Earned Allowances, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alhassan Mohammed Gani, has defended how the sum of N142 million allocated to the institution was judiciously disbursed.

The VC told Journalists during an interview at the University in Kashere that the Federal Government had released the sum of N142 million out of the sum of N704 million expected for the Earned Allowances for all Staff of the University.

He explained that the released sum was on the ratio of 80 per cent for the Academic staff and 20 per cent for the Non-Academic staff, which included the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) who formed the JAC, are also in the forefront of the demand.

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Earlier, the JAC had, through its Chairman, Mukhtar Mohammed, told Journalists that the union had resolved to embark on a five-day warning strike due to non-compliance with its request to release the template used for the disbursement of the funds for the school.

The VC, however, denied the allegation saying, “The University management had invited all the unions to come and work out the modalities for disbursement of the Earned Allowance released to the University.”

He explained that “The Federal Government had released the earned allowance to be paid to University staff in the ratio of 20 per cent to non-teaching staff and 80 per cent to teaching staff and the university management had invited the unions to come and work out the modalities of the earned allowance released to the university.

“We did that with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU),” he added.

He further explained that, “However, three unions, SSANU, NASU and NAAT, came together as JAC and I made sure that when the earned allowance was released, I asked my Bursar and the Registrar to inform the unions that we have received this money, and they should come forward so that we sit together, disburse the money according to the template because their earned allowance is clearly itemised.”

The VC also explained further that, “This allowance that was released is for 2009 to 2016 and the University had already paid up to May 2017 and we are still paying some of the components of the Earned Allowances like responsibility, over time, shifting allowance and occupational hazard even without funding from the Federal Government up to date”.

But the JAC Chairman had also alleged that “We had employed all measures to resolve the problem; these include a request for the release of the template used for the payment. We asked the management to give us the template so that we can be sure of what we earn and what is due to our members, but they refused”.

Mukhtar Mohammed also alleged that the Union which had struggled for the release of the money was given N28 million out of the N142 million released for the payment of the Earned Allowances but regretted that ninety per cent of their members did not benefit from the funds.