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These are, certainly, not the best of times for civil servants in Abia State. While thousands of them were sacked because they are not indigenes of the state, those who are ‘fortunate’ to remain in service are not paid as and when due. Worse still, those who dare to demand the several months of salary arrears they are being owed are harassed, intimidated and/or summarily dismissed. The latest case involves a lec­turer at the College of Education (Tech­nical), Arochukwu (names withheld by us) who was fired recently for ‘insulting’ the state governor by appealing to him to facilitate the payment of their backlog of salary arrears through a text message. The said lecturer was interrogated and asked to beg the governor so that the matter would end. But to his utter shock, he was fired a few days later.

However, workers of Bende Local Gov­ernment Area recently dared the powers-that-be, as it were and took to the streets of Umuahia, the capital of the state to protest against the introduction of a unique formula of sharing the statutory allocation accruing to local governments in the state by ballot­ing.

According to the workers numbering over 500, the ‘Abia formula’ has created confusion in the running of the local govern­ment areas in the state. They also protested against the non-payment of four months ar­rears of salary owed them in 2012.

The unique formula

In October last year, the Abia State gov­ernment introduced a new system of sharing allocation from the federation account to lo­cal government areas in the state. A source explained it thus: “It is known as ‘balloting’. What the new system entails is that when­ever the state government receives local governments’ allocation from the federation account, the normal Joint account Commit­tee ((JAC) meeting would be convened.

“At the said JAC meetings, lots would be drawn with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ written on them and put in a ballot box. Then the transi­tion committee chairmen would be called upon to pick. Any local government which is lucky and the TC chairman picks ‘yes’, would get money for the workers’ sal­ary for the given month but those that were not lucky and their chairmen picked ‘No’, would not be paid.”

The recent Bende workers protest was as a result of the JAC meeting held for the shar­ing of money for the salary of the council workers for the month of December, 2014.
“The TC chairman of Bende LGA ,whose workers were still being owed four months’ salary in 2012, was said to have picked ‘No’ for the month of December.

This simply translated that if they were not lucky during the next balloting which comes up in March this year, their December 2014 salary would not be paid even in May,” the source stated.

So, frustrated by the development, the workers matched from the Bende Local Government headquarters to Government House, Umuahia with the intention of seeing Gov Theodore Orji to intimate him of their suffering. But security men could not allow the workers who carried placards and sang songs of sorrow access to the seat of power.
One of the affected workers, who craved anonymity, lamented: “I have never seen this type of arrangement anywhere before. Local government workers have suffered so much under this government. The past ad­ministration in the state never owed us even one month salary, but now we are owed up to four to five months arrears of salary de­spite the fact that we now have enhanced allocation.

“What we cannot understand is this intro­duction of giving allocation accruing from the federation account through balloting when, in fact, funds allocated to each coun­cil by the Federal Government was enough to pay workers salary.

“We are talking about our December 2014 salary at this time and as we speak, we are not sure it will be paid in April. Our counterparts in other states were paid before Christmas while we celebrated on empty stomachs.”

Another worker said: “We’ve not been paid our December 2014 salary, not to talk of January salary. And from the look of things, we may not be paid the December salary by April because our council picked ‘No’ and our TC chairman is not helping matters by his lackadaisical attitude towards the plight of the workers”.

The workers are also demanding four months of arrears of salary they said they were being owed in 2012. In 2012, council workers embarked on a similar protest and carried a coffin round the streets of Umua­hia, praying that those responsible for non-payment of their salaries should die.

Investigations revealed that the new ‘Abia formula’ also applies to ministries and parastatals in the state. The result is that while some are owed for three months, their counterparts have not received their salaries for six months.

But how did the state get to this ugly pass? It was learnt that the state government is in­debted to a bank, which receives its money at source, immediately the monthly alloca­tions are made. So, according to sources, the state is virtually run with internally gener­ated revenue.

A teacher in the state also alleged that they were being short-changed in terms of promotion and the entitlements that go with it. Hear her: “If you are promoted in September this year for example, they will start paying your entitlement in January next year.

By so doing, your entitlements will go into somebody’s pocket for four months. And instead of promotion after three years as it ought to be, you will be promoted after four years. So, one year benefits will be lost. In Abia, head you lose, tail you lose.”