Some workers under the payroll of local governments in Jigawa State have cried over non-payment of June salaries by their respective local government councils.
Some of the workers, who spoke with DAILY POST on condition of anonymity, blamed the delay on the current local government autonomy approved by the Federal Government.
They explained that before the local government autonomy, local government workers were receiving their monthly salary on or before 25th of every month.
“To us, the local government autonomy is not a blessing because, from the beginning of the said autonomy, we have started suffering.
“Today is 5th of July still we haven’t received our June salaries and there is probability that some of the local government councils will sack workers because the burden is too much on them.”
They also urged state government to intervene and order the immediate payments of local government workers salaries as most of them depend on salaries.
However, Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa State said the reason for non-payment of salaries for the workers of local government was because of delay of federal government allocation.
Governor Badaru stated this through his Deputy and Acting Governor Alhaji Umar Namadi.
He said initially, state government used to borrow local government councils money to pay salaries even before the federal government allocation.
“Before the new circular on local government financial autonomy, the state government used to borrow money to local government for paying salaries in any case of federal allocation delay to meet up with policy of paying workers salary by 25th of every month,” he stated.
“Base on the new policy of local government financial autonomy, it is not possible for the state to borrow them money because it may raise suspicions during the payment.”
He said state government was considering increasing the local government stabilization funds from 2.5% to 5% monthly to overcome some of the financial challenges.
“We hope that in the next one to two years, the councils could have enough savings to use in case of any similar situation,” he said.
