Niger State government has said that no local government government was being owed salary after the release of N4.45 billion as bail-out to clear outstanding four months salaries in 12 councils for the 2016.
It also wondered why the councils were still complaining that they had not received the funds.
State Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Haliru Zakari Jikantoro, disclosed this while briefing journalists after the weekly state Executive Council meeting on Thursday.
The commissioner was reacting to rumours that some local government areas were defaulting in prompt payment of workers’ salary claiming that the state government had failed to release funds to it under the joint state local government account hence they could not pay primary school teachers.
According to Zakari, “It is true that there were four months accrued workers’ salaries in 12 local government areas, particularly in the education department but the governor has instructed the Ministry of Finance to pay the money and it has been released to the councils”.
“In July, N748,000 was released as bail-out to the affected councils. In August, N778,000 was paid while N2,190,000 was released as bail-out in November and another N587,000,000 went to the councils in December 2016 for salary payment.
Zakari however said that it was rather surprising that some council authorities still went about claiming that they were yet to be paid.
He said, “The sum of N146 million was equally paid for the allowances of ex-councillors in all the 25 councils of the state”.
The commissioner said that the state government never held on to the local government fund and wondered why it could be accused of being responsible for the predicament of the grassroots workers whose salaries were being withheld.
According to him, “Mr. Governor has equally directed the release of January 2017 salary to the council and this morning (Thursday) the money is being disbursed to all the local government but we are still hearing that some are still being owed”.
He said that the 12 affected councils include Agaie, Bida, Bosso, Gbako, Katcha, Lapai, Lavun, Chachanga, Mokwa, Paikoro, Shiroro and Suleja councils, adding that the bailout was part of the money gotten from the Paris Club.
The state government was disturbed by the development and had at its council meeting directed the Ministry of Local Government to set up a Commission of Enquiry to ascertain how and when the funds were released and to unearth how the funds were utilized.
