17 states owe salaries, pensions despite N1.8trn bailout – BudgIT

BudgIT has expressed worried that 17 out of the 36 states in the federation are yet to fully offset the outstanding amount owed pensioners and civil servants despite series of bailouts from the Federal Government amounting to N1.8 trillion aimed at offsetting the liabilities.

BudgIT is a civic startup that liberates budgets and public data from an inactive state into a more engaging format mostly through infographics and interactive application with the aim of improving civic discussion and institutional reform.

The survey, according to a statement signed Ayomide Faleye on Sunday, Communications Lead, was aimed at ascertaining the frequency and magnitude of challenges civil servants and pensioners are encountering.

The survey focused on three different categories of workers in all 36 states namely: primary and secondary school teachers, state midwives and state secretariat workers.

From the survey carried out, BudgIT discovered that 12 states are yet to offset the amount owed secondary school teachers fully and many states are threatening workers to keep the information away from public domain.

Notable among states with outstanding liabilities to secondary teachers are Osun and Kogi States.

While Osun State has been paying secondary school teachers above level 8 only a fraction of their salaries and entitlement for the last 30 months with a cumulative 15 months’ salary arrears; Kogi State, owes teachers about 13 months salaries according to the response given by secondary school teachers during the survey.

Other states with outstanding liabilities to states include: Abia, Benue, Bayelsa, Kwara, Imo, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo and Zamfara.

During the survey across the 36 states,BudgIT discovered that 10 states owed midwives salaries as at September 24, 2018.

Delta, Imo, Abia, Osun, Plateau, Bayelsa, Ekiti and 11 other states owe pensioners entitlement ranging from 1 month to 36 months.