Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
Tension is brewing in Jigawa State over non payment of June salary to local governments and local education authorities in the state.
The delay appears to be against the backdrop of the state government’s policy of paying workers salary on every 25th of every month which has been consistent in the last four years.
Reacting to the situation, Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Umar Namadi, attributed the delay to late disbursement from the Federal Allocation.
He also explained that the state would have supported the local governments account but for the new circular prohibiting it from tampering with council funds.
“Based on the new policy of Local Government Financial Autonomy it is not feasible for the state to borrow them money because it may raise suspicion during payment. ‘‘However to tackle such financial challenges, we are considering to increase the local government stabilisation fund from 2.5% to 5% monthly which we hope in the next one to two years the councils would have enough savings to use in case of any bad situation.”he assured.