The Bayelsa State Government on Monday dismissed the classification of the state as one of the states with the highest indebtedness to its workforce by the Nigerian Labour Congress.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, had at the weekend listed Bayelsa State as the third state with the highest salary backlog.
The NLC president listed the other states as: Benue, Kogi, Ekiti, Imo, Ondo, Abia and Oyo.
Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, in a statement he issued in Yenagoa, said the State remained amongst those with the least indebtedness to its workforce and described the NLC’s classification as misleading.
Iworiso-Markson, who declined to mention the state’s indebtedness to its workforce, said that the NLC did not consult with the state on the issue.
He said the report was done in bad faith because it lacked substance as it did not reflect the true position of things in the state.
He said: “As at now, the government is not owing salaries of its workers in the civil service as we have kept faith with payment since the beginning of the year till date.”
The commissioner said that the Bayelsa Government had always fulfilled its salary obligations until recently due to fall in the state’s monthly allocation from the Federal Government.
Iworiso-Markson said government had to borrow a number of times to make up for the shortfall to ensure that salaries were paid.
However, investigations by the News Agency of Nigeria revealed that civil servants in the state are being owed a backlog of five months’ salary accumulated in 2016.
Tari Dounana, the Bayelsa State chapter Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, told NAN in a telephone chat that backlog owed civil servants stood at four and half months.
Dounana said teachers were the worst affected, with 10 months outstanding salary.
NAN recalls that primary schools in Bayelsa State have remained shut since resumption of the 2017/2018 academic session as a result of the ongoing indefinite strike by the Nigerian Union of Teachers.
Dounana said the strike was due to non-payment of 10 months’ salary arrears the teachers.