Rabiu Omaku
Nasarawa state commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs,Aliyu Tijjani has affirmed that the N3.9bn Local Government bailout was used to clear backlog of July-September 2015 Local Government wage bill which he said amounted to N5.6bn.
He however said the Local Government in the state have an arrears of two and half month salaries of N5.6bn,the honorable commissioner affirmed that the allocation of August was received and would only cater for 50%.
Honorable Aliyu Tijjani confided that the amount received as the bailout was added to August statutory allocation in the sum of N1.2bn bringing the amount to N5.6bn.
The commissioner stated this during a press conference held at the ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs at the weekend,Aliyu Tijjani maintained that the N5.6bn has taken care of 250% of staff salaries of two and half months.
The commissioner while reacting to media report by one of the anti-graft agency,the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences news item dated 23/04/2016.
” Ladies and gentlemen ,we want to state here emphatically and without contradiction that as we are here talking today ,23/04/2016 ,all staff of Local Government in the state have collected their outstanding July-September 2015 salaries using the bailout funds to cover for the period of the shortfall.
The commissioner said no complaints was received from the Unions from the backlog of July-September salary ,” the Union has been the watchdogs of the workers they were represented during the disbursement exercise.
He further admitted that the hiccups experienced was the omission of staff names which he said the representatives of various Unions should either confirm or debunked the submission.
The ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs described the widely media reports over the diversion of N3.9bn Local Government bailout by Nasarawa state Government as a mischievous,calling on the general public to refute the report of the anti-graft agency .
“The ICPC should revisit their information so as to be better informed and disabused the minds of the public,during and after the payment salaries from the bailout fund ,no investigative agency came to find out the precise information on how the bailout were expended”.
The commissioner however called on ICPC to review it’s report by putting the records straight for the benefit of the general public,Honorable Aliyu Tijjani buttressed that the sum of N2.2bn is required every month to pay the monthly wage bill of the third tier of Government.
