Months after states in the country received budge support and bailouts from the Federal Government in the aftermath of the 2015/2016 oil price shocks, BudgIT, a civic society group in the country, says 17 of the beneficiary-states still owe their civil servants up to 30-month salaries and up to 15-month arrears to pensioners.
According to the statement signed by Ayomide Faleye, Communications Lead at BudgIT, notable among states with outstanding liabilities to secondary teachers is Osun and Kogi state.
Specifically, she lamented that “Osun State has been paying secondary school teachers above level 8 only a fraction of their salaries and entitlement for the last 30 months.
“Cumulatively, Osun state is owing secondary school teachers above level eight about 15-month salary.
“Other states with outstanding liabilities to states include Abia, Benue, Bayelsa, Kwara, Imo, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo and Zamfara. Kogi State, for instance, is owing teachers about 13 months salaries, according to the response given by secondary school teachers during the survey,” it added.
The statement estimated that total bailout granted to the states by the President Muhammadu Buhari Federal Government is in the region of N1.8tr to enable them offset all outstanding liabilities they owe workers.
BudgIT expressed worry that some states are yet to fully offset the outstanding amount owed pensioners and civil servants despite series of bailouts aimed at offsetting the liabilities, recently conducted a survey. The survey aimed at ascertaining the frequency and magnitude of challenges civil servants and pensioners are encountering. The survey
The organisation said its survey focused on three different categories of workers across the 36 states namely: primary and secondary school teachers, state midwives and state secretariat workers. Attention, it added, was paid to ascertaining if retirees at the state level are receiving pensions as at when due.
While demanding that the affected States should offset outstanding liabilities to workers and pensioners, being the primary condition for the bailout, BudgIT said the survey showed that 12 states are yet to offset the amount owed secondary school teachers fully.
Also affected, it noted, are “midwives, whose responsibility includes attending to issues around pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, women’s sexual and reproductive health and newborn care – are also bugged down by issues including failure of some state to pay salaries and emolument as at when due.
“Midwives were questioned during the survey across the 36 states. BudgIT discovered that 10 states are owing midwives salaries as at close of business on September 24, 2018.
“Delta, Imo, Abia, Osun, Plateau, Bayelsa, Ekiti and 11 other states owe Pensioners entitlement ranging from 1 month to 36 months. Almost all pensioners expressed how unhappy they are, their dissatisfaction with the government and how hard it has been for them to survive despite years of hard work up into service,” it added.