According to a report, Eight States Owe Workers for at Least Six Months

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

According to a recent audit, eight state governments failed to pay some of their employees for at least six months.
Taraba, Nasarawa, Edo, Ebonyi, Ondo, Plateau, Imo, and Abia are the states in question.

They owe both current employees and retirees, the paper claims.
For many years, Nigerian states have struggled with the irregular payment of workers’ paychecks. Officials frequently lament a revenue deficiency while yet using the same sparse resources for their extravagant pursuits.

According to Budgit, it undertook the survey to draw attention to and identify state governments that have repeatedly fallen short of meeting the fundamental standards for employee compensation and governance.

The group urged governments to take immediate action to address the blatant underpayment of state employees’ wages because it directly affects the morale, zeal, productivity, and survival of state employees and their families.
The organization expressed its displeasure over some state governments’ unwillingness to pay the monthly salary accruable to civil service workers in respective states as and when due in its empirical survey across the 36 states of the federation.

This empirical study was carried out by BudgIT to highlight and identify state governments that routinely fall short in providing for employee compensation and governance, forcing their employees to unpaid labor and difficult living situations.
However, the Edo State administration has requested that BudgIT withdraw its article.

The Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning claimed in a letter to BudgIT’s country director that the publication that claimed Edo owed six months’ salary was inaccurate and “had the tendency to mislead the public.”

The organization was instructed to remove the article from its website and apologize publicly by the state government within 48 hours.
Some employees in one state, Abia, went without compensation for 22 months.
According to BudgIT’s research, “The state (Abia) presently owes its state tertiary institution employees six months’ salary, while Ebonyi State has not paid its pensioners in the previous six months.”

According to the report, secretariat employees in Taraba State have complained of inconsistent salary payments for up to six months, while academics at state-run higher institutions and midwives at the state-run hospital in Ondo State have not received payment in the previous four months.

In a statement authored by Assistant Head of Media and Communications Iyanu Fatoba, BudgIT said:
As of July 28, 2022, at least 12 states owe their employees at least one month’s compensation, according to the organization’s study, “2022 Nigerian Sub-National Salary Survey.”

It encouraged the concerned jurisdictions to pay all accrued salaries in order to give employees’ rights top priority.
As of July 28, 2022, at least 12 states owe their employees at least one month’s salary, according to a statement from BudgIT. “BudgIT expressed this disapproval after its empirical survey across the 36 states in the federation revealed that.”

“BudgIT undertook this empirical investigation to highlight and identify state governments that have continuously failed to achieve the essential criterion of governance and employee compensation, consequently condemning their people to unpaid labor and difficult living conditions,” the study’s authors write.

According to poll results, “Abia, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Ondo and Taraba owe three years or less in payments,” it was stated.
“For instance, Ebonyi hasn’t paid its pensioners in the past six months, while Abia State owes its employees at state-run higher institutions six months’ worth of wages. While academics at state tertiary institutions and midwives at the state-owned hospital in Ondo state have not received any compensation in the last four months, secretariat staff in Taraba have complained of inconsistent salary payments for up to six months.
The compensation of civil officials is an essential component of the employer-employee relationship, whether at the state or federal level, according to Iniobong Usen, head of research and policy advice at BudgIT.

According to Usen, the government’s efficiency is hampered by salary delays, and timely salary payments are essential to civil servants’ survival and way of life. The government’s refusal to make timely salary payments demonstrates its disregard for its legal obligation to do so.

“Unfortunately, Nigerian civil personnel are accustomed to receiving their monthly salaries late or with gaps in them. Even though they are a part of the government’s executive branch, they frequently go without paychecks. Civil servants frequently reach their breaking point at month’s end since various states are guilty of this non-payment, he claimed.

The civic tech group added that the issue has persisted and is now concerning, that non-salary payments violate the fundamental terms of the contract between an employer and employee, and that they do not take into account national legislation on employee rights at the continental and international levels.

“BudgIT posits that this situation is a combination of ‘governance failure’ bordering on mismanagement and administrative inefficiency, an excessively high wage bill which may be due to subpar planning and hiring practices, and a problem of broader macroeconomic downturns which in some sense are beyond the control of the state governments, as they have little influence over monetary and fiscal policies,” the group added.

“Therefore, BudgIT calls on the various state governments to urgently address this obvious inability to pay state workers’ salaries as the attitude, enthusiasm, productivity, and survival of state workers and their families are directly related to the timeliness of their remuneration,” the group claims.