By, Nick Dugba
The reason why some Local Government employees could not enjoy the ongoing two month salary arrears being paid in Taraba State was because they might not have been ‘genuine Staff’ of their various Local Government Areas.
Last week, Staff of Local Government were exhilarated by the news that two months salary arrears out of the four months have been paid. Consequently, some have reported to have received alerts while others are still lamenting about not receiving theirs.
Confirming the issue today in Jalingo, the Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON,Taraba State, Stephen Agya, stated that some of the Local Government Staff might not have received their alert due to the fact that, they were not captured in the biometric exercise contracted to the UBA by the Government.
According to Agya, ‘Before the screening, Local Government Staff were about 33,000…that was why it brought UBA to know the actual number of Staff through biometrics so that he will be able to pay them…with what is happening, 21,022 Staff have been cleared by the UBA. So he gave the directive that the 21,022 who have been cleared should be paid’’.
The ALGON boss who doubles as Caretaker Chairman of Kurmi LGA, however allayed the fears of the aggrieved Staff, saying they needed not be afraid as a directive has been issued to all Local Government Caretaker Chairmen to go ahead and submit the list of those who have not been paid, so as to enable their payment so long as they are genuine Staff of their various Local Government Areas.
“For those who have not gotten their salaries, I have spoken to the Chairmen, if you have real Staff, you should give your account to the Caretaker Chairman, and you will be paid your salary. We have asked all Chairmen to bring their complaints between now and tomorrow”.
Agya therefore disclosed the criteria for determining if one is a genuine Staff in the Local Government saying, ‘if your name does not appear in the list of those that have been paid between January and April, you cannot claim to be a Staff’.
He concluded that as at now only salaries for May and June have been being paid.
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