Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed, has lamented that almost all the amount of the monthly allocation of about N7 billion coming to the state is expended on payment of salaries, allowances, pension and gratuity of civil servants.
The Governor, therefore, explained that he was not elected to pay salaries alone but to provide other dividends of democracy to the people of the state in terms of developmental projects that will better the lives of the people who elected him against all odds.
Bala Mohammed who spoke when he granted audience to the Christian Community in the state on Christmas homage at the Government House complained that though his administration is gradually solving the problem of delay in salary payment, it was discovered that some workers earn double monthly remunerations thereby, inflating the amount spent on salaries.
According to him, “People are creating exclusion within the nominal roll in order to cause disaffection between us. Maybe out of the thousands of workers we are paying, some of them will just deliberately be excluded.”
He added that, “But the government is providing 100 percent money required to pay salaries, pension and other allowances, and, we are trying to do our best to make sure such exclusion where some people are just removed deliberately from the payroll will be a thing of the past.
“We have exited the Consultants because some people said he is a problem so that at the end of the day, everybody will get his salary and pension,” he added.
The Governor also said that, “Pertaining to gratuity, we inherited over N28 billion arrears, we cannot do a miracle, we are paying it as we get some little money that is in excess of the salaries, we are determined to settle everybody as long as we remain in office.”
The Governor, however, said that his administration was working to ensure that any excluded worker is included on the payroll especially with the granting of local government autonomy.
He said: “Already, we have enforced autonomy for the local governments, we are giving them their resources and they have started paying their salaries as from last month. And to our own appreciation, we discovered that nobody in the local governments was excluded in the last salaries because the local governments are paying from the local governments, and we will continue that way.”
He added that, “We have established a portal in the Ministry of Finance under the office of the Head of Service and anybody who is not paid should come and meet our people and he will be paid immediately.”
Furthermore, Bala Mohammed said that: “As Christians and Muslims, we should fear God. Some people are collecting double salaries; people are collecting allowances that are not their own.
“And you can see that we get N7 billion from Federal Government, at the end of the day, we end up using everything to pay salaries. Yet, some people are saying they have not gotten salary. I was not elected to pay salary alone. I’m elected to do projects and programmes for the good of the people,” he declared.
He further declared that, “Still, as a civil servant, I know obligation to pay salary and that’s why I have been paying. We are making sure we are reserving and raising our IGR (internally generated revenue) and that is why we are doing all these projects.
“You can see the brand new government House here, we are doing it for you, not for me. The issue is that we must build legacies and landmarks and we will work hard to make you proud,” he stressed.
He told the Christians audience that, “If I fail to perform as a Governor, people will laugh at you, because you are the majority that voted me into office, so, I must perform and build roads, hospitals, among others for the benefit and enjoyment of everyone in the state.”
He then urged them to imbibe the teachings of Jesus Christ in their dealings with others especially those of other faiths and to make peace with one and other.
