70,000 workers being owed by FG

According to reports, about 70,000 civil servants are currently being owed up to three months’ salaries by the Federal Government.

This was disclosed by the Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Alade Lawal on Monday, December 28.

Lawal revealed this to Punch in Abuja while listing some of the defaulting ministries which include Education, Works, Labour and Productivity, Mines and Power.

“About eight MDAs have been owing workers their salaries from October. The number rose to 11 in November and in December, hit 30, including departments and agencies,” Lawal said.

“They are telling us that some of the MDAs are involved in expenditure items different from salaries. They said they were spending on items not related to salaries. But that is not supposed to be the fault of the workers.”

“There should be synergy in government whereby they have to work in tandem with the Budget Office and Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. They know what they are doing, they are muddling up the whole exercise and suffering workers unnecessarily,” he added.

“As of December 22, they promised us that before Wednesday, December 24, these payments would be made. But as I am talking to you now, affected workers have not been paid. The Ministry of Works alone has about 26,000 workers. If you add them together, they can’t be less than 70,000 workers that are affected,”ed.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, through its Vice President, Issa Aremu, also recently revealed that public workers in 22 states were being owed salaries by their respective governments.