FCT area councils struggle to pay September salaries
The six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are still struggling to pay their staff salaries for the month of September after some statutory deductions were made from the N1.5 billion (N1,501,176,445.24) that was shared among the councils during the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting presided over by the FCT permanent secretary, John Chukwu.
The statutory deductions that were made were payment of primary school teachers of the Local Education Authority (LEA), 15 percent pension fund, one percent training fund, teachers monetization/entitlements as well as 7.5 percent employer pension contribution.
City News findings revealed that area councils such as Gwagwalada got N78 million, Kuje 57 million, Kwali N56 million, Bwari N50 million, Abaji N47 million and Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) got N27 million.
It was further gathered that AMAC and Kuje are yet to pay their staff salaries, as the wage bill for workers in the former is up to N100 million, while that of the latter is about N90 million.
A staff in Kuje Area Council who craved anonymity disclosed that the council had gone to borrow money from the bank to add to the amount on ground in order to pay its staff salaries.
One of the
council chairmen, who also spoke with our reporter on telephone, said that the amount his council got could not pay its staff salaries after statutory deductions for payment of teachers and others were made from what was allocated to the council.
Reacting, Comrade, Abubakar Yakubu Alhassan of the (FCT) chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), said it was quite disturbing that despite the inclusion of IGR, the area councils still struggle to pay staff salaries.
He said there was the need for the union and stakeholders across the six area councils to come together and explore avenues of generating revenue.