The government of Abia has put civil servants in the State State on notice that the second tranche of the Paris club refund from the federal government released earlier in the week will not be enough to pay the outstanding backlog of salaries and allowances.
Obinna Oriaku, Abia State Commissioner of Finance said in Umuahia that the N5.7bn received as the second tranche of the Paris Club refund was below expectation.
Oriaku, after a meeting between Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and organised labour in the State, said the state was expecting between N12bn to N14bn and the N5.7bn it got cannot take care of all the outstanding debts owed workers.
He said, “What we got, of course, is very surprising. Before now, we expected that the worst we should get as a state may be between N12bn and N14bn, that was our expectation.”
“We made our workers look forward to the day we will disburse the funds. Unfortunately, what we got late last Friday was N5.715bn. So, it has really put us in a bad situation, because we had expected to use the money to clear out the arrears.”
The commissioner stated the situation was made worse given that the governor promised to clear all outstanding salaries owed to workers before the end of July this year.
“I mean what do we do? We called the labour leaders to explain the situation and its implications that the fund would not go round as it is not enough, and would not take care of all the outstanding,” he added.
In his response, the state chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Uchenna Obigwe described the situation as worrisome.
He said, “Hearing what the government has told us now – that the state has received only N5.7bn because we do not know how we will manage our issue. There is a lot of indebtedness and it was not occasioned by this administration.
“In as much as we believe that government is continual, our interest is that workers’ interest and pension matters including gratuities should be addressed.”