By Matthew Denis
The Federal Government has received knocks over delayed June salary as labour unions in Kwara State decried the nation’s poor financial planning.
The unions noted that lack of proper monitoring mechanism is responsible for the poor remittances by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Recall that a statement had been credited to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Remi Adeosun that there will be delay in salary payment for the month of June over poor remittances by NNPC.
Speaking to Pilot Business on Friday, state Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Yekeen Agunbiade, said the salary crisis coming at a time like this is saddening.
“As a union we are blaming the Federal Government over this development. I want the government to know that workers are suffering as the N18,000 minimum wage is inadequate given the raising cost of living and high cost of commodities. Workers are not happy with this salary crisis.
Agunbiade therefore appealed to the Minister of Finance to consider the plea of civil servants by ensuring that the management of NNPC live up to expectations for proper revenue augmentation and remittances.
Also speaking, the state Chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Nasir Olumoh decried the development.
He lamented that civil servants have to bear the brunt of poor financial planning by the Federal Government.
“The Federal Government is not helping matters for God’s sake, how will salary be delayed for workers at this period. I’m highly disappointed in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The way and manner this government is running the economy is bad.
“Money is not disbursed immediately and there is no cash backing. The economy will no doubt be affected by this salary crisis. It is this salary that people use to settle their bills and carry out transactiond in the market,” he noted.
Recall that the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun last Thursday stressed that the stalemate at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting would delay the payment of workers salaries in the states.
Adeosun gave the indication while briefing state House correspondents on the deliberations at the National Economic Council meeting presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
The minister said that the council was briefed on the FAAC debacle where states resolved to wait until the poor remittance made into the federation account by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation was reconciled before they would receive their allocations.
Adeosun said: “We operate NNPC as a business, we have invested public capital in that business and we have an expectation of a return and when that return falls lower than our expectations then the owners of the business, which in this case is the Federal Government and the states needs to act.
“So that is really what caused the deadlock yesterday (June 27).
“We really felt that the figures that the NNPC was proposing for FAAC was unacceptable; we felt that some of the costs could not be justified.
“And so we have decided rather than approve the accounts we would go back and do further work.”
