* Ikpeazu, Abia Gov
Abia Workers’ Purchasing Power Rises with Bailout Fund
Disbursement
Source: Thisday
19th October, 2015
Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia
With the disbursement of the N14.152 billion bailout funds, the
purchasing power of Abia State workers, which hitherto was at a
very low level, has picked up as workers in the affected agencies
and parastatals  have received salary arrears, some as much as nine months.
The Bailout Fund Management Committee headed by Mr. Obinna
Oriaku has disclosed that all outstanding salary arrears were
disbursed to banks for onward transmission to the workers, who
are already receiving credit alerts from their respective banks.
According to the payment schedule made available to THISDAY, a
total of 15 departments, agencies and parastatals affected by the
backlog of salaries had been cleared.
The biggest beneficiaries were staffs of Abia State University
Uturu (ABSU), Abia State University Teaching Hospital ABSUTH),
Aba, and College of Education, Arochukwu, who all received eight
months of salary arrears.
Other workers that got big chunk of salary arrears include those
in the Health Management Board, who were paid their seven
months, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba got their six months arrears
while School of Health Technology, Aba and State Pensions
Board each got five months salary backlog cleared.
Primary school teachers were paid four months arrears through
the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) while in the
local governments, the arrears of three months owed workers
and pensioners were cleared.
Even those owed one or two months arrears were not left out,
including staffs of Secondary Education Management Board
(SEMB) MDAs, Judiciary, Enyimba Football club and Abia Warriors
Football Club.
Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Public
Communications, Mr. Sam Hart, said in a statement that the
payment of the salary arrears were carried out after verification
exercise to determine the actual number of months of accrued
salaries for each of the affected agency, department and
parastatals.
He said government was pleased with educational institutions that
“found ways to sustain their operations despite the non-release of
their subventions over time and wishes to encourage them to
continue to strive for excellence.”
The SSA, public communications said the salary of workers in
the local governments was becoming “unsustainable” given that
the current wage bill stands at N900 million whereas the average
monthly allocation is N1.5 billion.
He explained that the ongoing staff verification exercise in the
local governments was aimed at blocking the possible loopholes
that create the huge wage bill, adding that government was
seeking the cooperation of the leadership of National Union of
Local Government Employees (NULGE) to achieve the desired
result.
“Governor Okezie Ikpeazu will continue to show goodwill by
paying the current wage bill but NULGE has to work with
government for a verification exercise to manage the current local
government workforce,” he said.
On the issue of backlog of gratuities and allowances, Hart said
the bailout committee “will review arrears of leave and promotion
allowances and also some pressing gratuity claims if all salary
and pensions claims have been offset and funds are still
available.”