MAKURDI -Gov. Gabriel Suswam has blamed the nonpayment of workers’ salaries on a huge wage bill prompted by the implementation of minimum wage for workers in the state.
The state government had deducted workers’ salaries on the grounds that the wage bill was over bloated.
Suswam’s plea to the workers to forfeit part of their salaries to enable the government pay primary school teachers fell on deaf ears as the workers challenged the action through an industrial boycott of work.
Speaking to newsmen on Friday in Makurdi, Suswam said that the three months’ salary arrears owed workers was because of the wage bill from the new salary. [eap_ad_2] He said that salaries of local government workers alone amounted to 4.1 billion while internal revenue sources accruable to the state were N3.5 billion.
The governor, who said the state was struggling to pay salaries, hinted that he might not conduct local government elections owing to lean economic resources.
He said that the state would appoint caretaker committees to oversee the management of the councils.
Suswam said that his administration had laid the foundation for the economic take off of the state and was hopeful that succeeding administrations would improve on his performance.(NAN) [eap_ad_3]
