ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi
Bauchi state government has apologised for the delay it encountered in payment of July salaries to civil servants in the state, explaining that it was not intentional but due to circumstances beyond its control.
The state’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Aminu Hassan Gamawa, stated this in an interview with journalists on Saturday in Bauchi.
He attributed the delay in the payment of July salaries to network challenges encountered by banking system, declaring that no legitimate civil servant would be deprived his or her salary.
Gamawa who hinted that the government has so far paid more than 60 per cent of its workers their July salaries, reassured that legitimate workers would continue to recieve their salaries as and when due.
He apologised on behalf of the state government to legitimate civil servants who are yet to receive their July salaries due to the Banks challenges.
He insisted that, out of all the states of the federation, Bauchi state is one of the states that has been consistent in the payment of salaries and pensions.
According to him, payment of salaries and pensions is the priority area of the administration of Governor Bala Mohammed upon assumption of office.
Gamawa said the governor has introduced many reforms as part of steps to block leakages and ghost workers in the state’s payroll.
He said, “On the payment of July salaries, I want to inform the citizens of Bauchi state that Senator Bala Mohammed has already paid the salaries, but we realised that some are yet to receive their entitlements, the problem is not from the government but from the banks.
“I want to apologise, on behalf of Governor Bala Mohammed, to those who are yet to receive their salaries and to legitimate workers who were also affected by our verification exercise.
“The public holidays on Thursday and Friday, also affected the payment, but we are hoping that everyone will receive alert by Monday or Tuesday.
“No body and I repeat it, no legitimate civil servant in Bauchi state will fail to receive his or her salaries on time, we have already provided platforms for receiving complaints, and we are ready to expedite action on them.
“But people are now using the issue of payment of salaries for politics and I know those that are benefiting from ghost workers will also make noise.”
The Budget and Economic Planning Commissioner added that “For clarification, the LEA, LGA and PHCA staff were paid fully between 24th July, and 27th July, 2020, also all staff banking with Microfinance Banks and Bank of Agriculture were paid state their salary.
“And currently, paying salaries in their respective branches and the State Salary for remaining staff banking with commercial banks for July 2020 were enrouted to the individual employees accounts in all commercial Banks via NIBSS PayPlus service platform.
“The platform anchoring epayment in the country has been going through challenges in the last six weeks.”
On the payment of N30,000 new national minimum wage, the Commissioner said already the state has commenced the payment from levels one to seven.
He recalled that, upon the inception of the present administration, the government discovered a lot of fraud and ghost workers in the payroll of the state government which necessitated the Governor to set up a committee responsible for sanitizing the system.
Gamawa said all the reforms were introduced to enable the state government free resources for the employment of qualified citizens into the state civil service.
“All what we are doing is to free resources thereby eliminating fraud, ghost workers and even clean our system.”
“We inherited a lot of pension backlog, we are determined to pay all serving and retired civil servants their salaries and pensions, but that is only possible if we end the corruption in the system and make savings.”
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