The Nasarawa State House of Assembly on Friday directed the Head of Service, Joseph Anchor, to work out modalities for the payment of seven months salary owed to 29 staff of the State Polytechnic, Lafia, before the end of this month.
Daniel Oga-Ogazi (APC-Kokona East), the Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Science and Technology, gave the directive in Lafia during a meeting with some stakeholders to resolve salary crisis at the institution.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that those who attended the meeting included the Head of Service and the Permanent Secretary of Establishment and Manpower, who doubles as the Chairman of the State Biometric Committee.
Others were officials of the Joint Union of the Polytechnic and other stakeholders.
Oga-Ogazi said the directive became imperative in view of the fact that the affected staff were genuinely employed by the polytechnic.
He said: “This meeting has become necessary following a complaint on non-payment of salary to some staff of the polytechnic presented to this committee by the Joint Union of the Polytechnic.”
He said the workers’ names were omitted from the salary voucher of the institution in September 2015, adding: “After careful investigation, we discovered that the affected staff were genuinely employed by the polytechnic.”
Oga-Ogazi said the committee members wondered why their names were omitted from the payroll despite being captured during the biometric exercise in the state.
He said: “In the interest of peace as well as to improve on the standard of living of the affected staff, we are directing the Head of Service to liaise with the Bureau for Salary Administration, to pay the salary of the affected staff.”
Oga-Ogazi said the Assembly was in full support of the staff biometric exercise and had made a case for financial autonomy of all tertiary institutions in the state.
He lauded the management of the institution for living up to expectation and urged them not to hesitate to do the right thing always in the interest of peace and national development.
In his submission, Anchor informed the committee that any issue relating to tertiary institutions, was directly under the state Governor, Tanko Al-Makura.
He reiterated the state government’s commitment to continue to improve on the welfare of staff so as to boost productivity for the overall development of the country.
Earlier, Paul Husseini, the spokesman of the Joint Union of the Polytechnic, said 36 staff of the polytechnic were omitted from the salary voucher of the institution in September 2015.
“However, out of the 36 affected staff, seven are now back into the payroll, remaining 29,” Husseini said.
NAN.
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