Bauchi Governor Speaks on State-wide staff Verification Exercise | Says Policy Has Come to Stay

Bauchi State governor Abdullahi Abubakar in a statement on Wednesday addressed the issue of the ongoing staff verification exercise in the state.

He said that his adminstration embarked on the exercise “in order to ascertain the actual number of workers in both the State and Local Government Services and at the same time sanitize the salary and pension pay rolls”.

His statement read:

I am  happy to inform you that the  first segment of the verification exercise is over and all outstanding salaries of staff of Local Education authorities have been settled  up to  March 2016.  At the  moment we had commenced payment of  the salaries for workers in State Service and Local Education Authorities for  April, 2016 before a  garnishee order was slapped  on all the accounts of the State  government by an Industrial Court in Jos over the claim of some councilors of Local Governments who served during the regime of Isa Yuguda and also Ahmed Mu’azu.  Had we succeeded in completing the payment, Bauchi State would have had only May 2016 salaries as outstanding.  This contrary to what the enemies of Bauchi State claim.  Therefore only May, 2016 salary is outstanding.

I should however make it clear that Bauchi State is  one of the best States as  far as payment of staff salaries is concerned.  Some States owe their workers up to eight months salaries while in some States the workers are paid half salaries  after  agreement with  their Governments pending when  things  normalize.

I want to acknowledge that in the course of the  verification exercise, we embarked upon, some mistakes were made.   Some deliberate  and  others human.  With regards to the  human errors I wish to  tender  our  sincere apologies to those who were made to suffer unduly. In respect of the  deliberate mistakes,  I want to assure you that appropriate disciplinary measures are being taken against the  culprits.

I should  emphasize that the verification exercise is a policy of the State Government that has came to stay.  However, this time around, we will not suspend the payment of salaries.  I assure you  that the payments of salaries will continue   hand in hand with the  verification exercise.  We will ensure that all aspects of salaries and the  verification exercise will continue  and  will eventually lead to  Biometric Data Capture of all workers in the State and Local Government  Services as well as pensioners.

Finally, I wish to appreciate the support and understanding so far exhibited by workers, pensioners and the  leadership of the  organized labour in the State.  As we all know, the delay in the payment of  workers salaries is a general  phenomenon in  the country which is brought about by the  decline in  oil revenue to the Federal government which drastically reduced our  monthly statutory allocation.  We are  all aware  that the price  of oil in the international market has been on the decline and this  together with the  activities of vandals who  blow up  oil pipelines have contributed in putting a lot of pressure on the economy  of   this country.

Inspite of these challenges, however, I want to assure you that we will continue to discharge our obligations to the people within  available resources.

Thank you and may God bless.