THE Federal Government is allegedly owing over N10 billion in arrears of unpaid salaries and allowances to some teachers across the 104 Federal Unity Schools in Nigeria.
The affected teachers were employed as education officers in the Federal Ministry of Education in the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 in all Federal Government colleges.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that after the employment, their salaries were not paid till over a year of their employment date as well as their first 28 days allowance.
One of the affected teachers told the Nigerian Tribune: “I got employment in February 2014 and I received my first salary alert in June 2015 – meaning that I have salary arrears of almost 17 months to receive since 2014.
“As newly employed officers, we are entitled to our first 28 days allowance and from 2014 till date, nothing has been paid to us.”
The teacher who did not want his name in print further revealed that following mounting pressure by the affected teachers, the Federal Ministry of Education directed individual school principals to pay all the accumulated first 28 days allowances, but this order was not respected by the institutions.
It was gathered that the Association of Senior Civic Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) took up the matter with other issues like accumulated promotion arrears of mostly senior officers on Grade Levels 12, 13 and 14.
A source noted that through the intervention of the union, some of the accumulated promotion money was paid haphazardly as some received while others did not.
The affected teachers in a save-our-souls (SOS) letter said: “The union made us to know that the Federal Government had set aside N10 billion to pay the arrears, yet nothing has been done.
“We were made to know that the payment would be in phases: promotion arrears will receive first and after that the salary arrears will come, along with the first 28 days; but up till now, nothing has been done.
“The irony of it all is that those employed in 2017 and 2018 in the same ministry have been paid their salary arrears, remaining only their first 28 days.
“It is frustrating that the Federal Government is giving bailout fund to state governments while we the federal staff are in abject poverty with so many financial embarrassment,” they stated.
When contacted, the deputy director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Ben Goong, said this could be a procedural challenge, saying though the ministry does not pay staff directly since salaries are paid by the federal ministry through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said: “People not being paid for so many months, even sometimes for one, two years, is a procedural challenge; procedural in the sense that provision has to be made in appropriation, perhaps, to come through the Ministry of Finance.
“You know we are all now on Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS). So, no ministry is paying its staff directly. All that the ministry does is to raise appropriate records and send them to the Ministry of Finance to make provision for that. Sometimes, it takes a long time.
“The question is when those teachers were employed, what was the budgetary provision at that time for them to be paid? As you have rightly said, some of them were recruited in 2012, 2013 and so on. That is why you hear about shortfall in salaries and wages.
“It is also important to understand that Grade Level 8, which is graduate employment, lies with the Federal Civil Service Commission. The commission employs, posts to the ministry and the ministry documents and then sends the records to the Ministry of Finance to make budgetary provisions for appropriation. So, it takes a while and it is really not anybody’s making.”
Goong, however, said he was not aware of the fact that N10 billion was earmarked for the payment of these arrears, insisting that no ministry is paying anybody directly and no one could hold back somebody’s salary.
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