Salary arrears: FCTA to bail out Abuja area councils
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) will provide bailout funds to its six Area Councils to enable them pay workers outstanding two months salary.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, announced this through his media team, at an interactive session with the FCT Press Corps on Monday in Abuja.
He said that the councils had been directed to look inward and source for funds to clear the remaining one month salary arrears.
The minister, however, said that the National Assembly would have to approve the virement to accommodate the bailout.
Bello said that the bailout funds would be deducted from the 10 per cent statutory fund that would accrue to the councils from the FCTA internally generated revenue.
“To ensure that these funds were judiciously spent, the FCT Administration would constitute a panel to conduct personnel audit of the Local Education Authority.
“Because about 90 per cent of allocation from the Federation Account to the FCT Area Councils goes to primary schools,'' he added.
Bello disclosed that the administration would review the budgetary system of the area councils, noting that “the way it is designed is the beginning of the problem at the local level.”
The minister said the FCTA had settled an outstanding debt of over N250 million owed cleaning and security contractors working in the FCT Districts and General Hospitals.
He said that the debt cleared was for services provided by the companies for up to December 2015.
According to him, the administration has equally extended the services of the contractors to December 2016 to give room for engagement of new ones in 2017.
“In order to exterminate rodents and minimize any possibility of Lassa fever in the Federal Capital Territory, the FCT Administration has concluded plans to fumigate the entire territory.
“The action would go a long way in improving the environment and preventing avoidable diseases,'' he said.
According to him, the administration has stamped out bird flu as no new case has been reported since February 9.(NAN)