Delta Lga: Okowa’s Aide Indict Past Governors For Alleged Over Bloated Workforce
The Commissioner in charge of the Directorate of Local Government Affairs, Bright Edejehro, has bereted past governors of the state, saying they never had the future of the state at heart.
He said previous governors that led the state refused to think about the future of the state, accusing them of over bloating the workforce at the local government level by employing a high number of people at the council.
“Government is not looking at the future, there was more employment and they were not thinking of putting the right infrastructure in place”, lamenting that across the country, Delta has the highest wage bill at the local government level.
“Our salary structure, is still the highest”, just as he revealed that a salary level grade 7 officer who works at the health department earn as high as N70, 000.
The Commissioner cried out Wednesday when he played host to members and leaders of the Indigenous Correspondents’ Chapel (ICC), of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council
The Commissioner also disclosed that the cartel at the local government council does what he called ‘over stepping’, a situation where salaries are over paid to some staff, “they top salaries of local government workers. Some who receive N80, 000, are paid N280, 000 and the excess is returned to the cartel for sharing at the end of the month”, he alleged.
According to him, some local government councils in the state struggle to pay salaries due to over bloated workforce as the dwindling allocation has not been able to meet their huge salary structure.
“Uvwie, Udu, Ughelli North, Isoko North and South and Sapele council areas have a wage bill ranging between N80 and N105 million, “so when the allocation comes, they can barely pay workers”, he bemoaned.
While noting that some council areas are owing about three month salaries, he said, “Warri North and Burutu councils are not owing because they have a few school and they have a wage bill of about N24 million”.
While advocating for a slash in salary, Edejehro hinted: “even the federal government slash workers’ salaries at tertiary institutions. Whatever is happening at the local government is the reality of the downward economy. The reasonable thing to do is to slash”.
He further argued that since 2015 when oil prices crashed, the federal government finds it difficult to finance its own projects, “not to talk about the state and the local government councils”.
Aligning with the governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, Edejehro said, “It is not the duty of the state government to pay local government workers’ salaries, it can only assist if it is convenient”.
On the clocking in and clocking out system introduced into the local government area, he said some council workers who clock in and go about their businesses would be checkmate, “we are going to device a means to stop it”.
However, some top management staff who were present at the event murmured behind the Commissioner, saying that the Commissioner can’t stop it following failure of government to pay salaries as at when due.