Unpaid salaries: Civil servants ask EFCC to probe governors

THE Nigeria Civil Service Union, NCSU, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate former and serving governors who allegedly squandered the states resources for frivolities but abandoned payment of workers salaries. The union alleged that some of the governors used the state money to finance campaigns during the elections, while the workforce was being owed salary for many months.

The union in a communique issued at the end of a one-day meeting in Abuja, jointly signed by its President, Comrade Kiri Mohammed and Acting General Secretary, Comrade Felix Ifoh, described as unfortunate a situation where some states and local governments cannot pay workers salaries, allowances and other mandatory deductions for many months due to corruption.

The communique stated that it had become necessary for the anti-graft agency to beam its searchlight into the activities of the affected governors to ascertain how they managed the state resources. It alleged that some former and serving governors wasted the resources in paying for inflated contracts and other personal expenses, including chartered flights, sponsoring of political campaigns, bugus security votes and payment of severance allowances.

The communique read in part: “The meeting, therefore, sees no reason why state and local governments should fail in their mandatory responsibility. This situation is not only unfortunate but criminal. “The meeting, therefore, call upon the EFCC to investigate the activities of such governors, either serving, voted out or finished their tenure and bring them to justice.”

The union lamented that many civil servants were facing difficulties as a result of non payment of salaries, adding that the development had resulted to a situation where they could no more feed, afford to pay school fees of their children or attend to the medical bills of their families. It further noted with regret that some of them have resorted to trekking to their various offices because they cannot afford the transport fare.

The union, however, commended the Federal Government for averting a serious industrial disputes capable of creeping poor state of Nigerian economy, for a bold and courageous step taken to assist affected states. It also lauded the doggedness of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, for putting in place a task force on unpaid salaries in state and local governments.

The union noted that the inability of state governments to pay salaries was not as a result of paucity of funds, but for “high level of corruption, misappropriation of resources and flagrant disregard for the fulfilment of contractual agreement.” It urged workers in the states yet to commence strike to wake up to their responsibility so that their plights would be ameliorated by the government.