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From Uchenna Inya, Esther Onu, Abakaliki
The Executive Secretary of the Local Government Staff Pension Board (LGSPB), Ebonyi State, Emeka Nwonu, has identified ghost workers in the local government system as the cause of the delay in the payment of retired civil servants in the system.
The state has not paid pensions and gratuities of retired local government workers since its creation in 1996.
October salaries of serving workers in the system have also not been paid, which has been worrying the workers.
Nwonu said Governor Francis Nwifuru was not in control of the local government funds and absolved the governor of the debts.
He stated this at a press briefing in Abakaliki, the state capital.
He explained that salaries, wages, allowances, pensions, and gratuities of the local government workers (civil servants), including UBEB workers who are in the field, and retirees in the state, were being released by the local government areas to the Local Government Staff Pension Board for onward payments as determined or charted by the State Local Government Service Commission and not the state government.
He opined that the governor had cleared the backlog of pensions and gratuities of state civil servants, which amounted to ₦7 billion.
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“Due to the financial autonomy, His Excellency, the governor, who believes much in the tenets of democracy and upholds the principles of the rule of law, does not interfere in the monetary affairs of the Local Government Areas. Instead, as the father of the state, he advises or guides the local government chairmen, who are also stakeholders in his administration, on the presumable best way to operate. This position has held excellently well since he came on board.
“I was, on Thursday, 18th January 2024, graciously inaugurated by His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Bildr. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, as the Executive Secretary of Ebonyi State Local Government Staff Pension Board, with a charge in line with the policy thrust of his administration to go to the board and bring about a total transformation for the senior citizens who have meritoriously served our dear state at the local government levels and ensure they are paid their retirement benefits.
“His Excellency visibly frowned at the conditions of the local government retirees, who are yet to receive their retirement benefits, and reiterated the readiness and willingness of his people-oriented administration (which includes the local government chairmen) to pay them. He directed me to verify the extant pensions and gratuities owed to them, collate, process, and profile the pensioners for the immediate payment of their benefits.
“In compliance with His Excellency’s directive, I immediately took significant steps and gathered findings from the principal officers and related stakeholders that would ensure the prospective and successful profiling and payment processes for the retirement benefits of the deserving pensioners. After about two weeks, I returned and presented my report to His Excellency, having a total of ₦9,044,402,05.40 billion to be paid to 4,920 retirees and 1,135 deceased pensioners, respectively. I was given a further directive by the governor, which we are almost through with. We also embarked on pensioners’ verification across the 13 LGAs.
“I and my team have done much. It may interest you to know that while my office is tidying up all the processes and coming to a fruitful conclusion, several meetings have been held, and committees constituted as implored and directed by His Excellency, who feels the pulse of Ebonyi people. In all of these, the local government chairmen were always part of the meetings and committees as the people who will pay the money, either represented by the ALGON Chairman, the Chairman of the Joint Account Committee, or the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, or all of them would be involved.
“Having presented the total amount to be paid to the local government retirees from 1996 to 2023, amounting to over ₦9 billion, the council chairmen said that the money was humongous. They gave reports from whistle-blowers that there was corruption in the salary management of the local government workers, stressing that people had been retiring, but salaries kept increasing. It is in light of this that the local government chairmen agreed on a table payment method, which would pave the way for physical verification as it is currently going on. This is the reason the local government workers are being owed. With this, ghost workers will be fished out, and money will be saved.
“The current local government chairmen inherited the debt of pensions and gratuities from the previous administrations. The accumulation came upon the unexpected stoppage of the remittance of 15% shares from the local government workers’ salaries, wages, and allowances,” he said.
