Bloated wage bill: Rivers uncovers N1.8bn excess payment


PORT HARCOURT—A glut of over N1.8 billion has been discovered in the monthly wage bill of Rivers State public service.
Chairman, Rivers State Council of Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Chris Oruge, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on Labour’s preparedness to celebrate today’s  Labour Day in the state.
He said the excess payment was discovered by a Joint Labour/Government Investigation Committee from a misguided implementation of the special salary scheme for medical health professionals in the state.
He said following government’s complaint of an overbearing wage bill, which had made it clash with labour over non-implementation of certain workers’ incentives and entitlements, the committee discovered that many persons were earning undeserved stuffed salaries.
“This is not even the issue of ghost workers. You know that medical health professionals earn
special salaries. But we have a situation where anybody who works in the ministries employing these health professionals now enjoys this higher pay.
“As a result,  we have a worrisome drift of civil servants into these ministries, such that an accountant, administation officer or secretary working in say, the Ministry of Health, earns three times or more than his counterpart in other ministries. The policy does not say anybody working in health ministry must earn bigger. The special salary is for only health professional only,” he added.
He said the committee had already taken steps to resolve the issue, adding that “in the next couple of months, the irregularities would be addressed,  so that government can better  address the lingering wage issue that affects the generality of workers.

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