FCTA assures staff of payment of salaries, allowances

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, on Monday assured the staff of the FCT Administration that issues regarding the nonpayment of their salaries and allowances would soon be resolved.
The minister gave the assurance in Abuja, while addressing aggrieved workers who staged a protest and called for his removal.
Mohammed said that the FCTA, which had over 28,000 personnel, paid about N3.6 billion monthly as workers’ salaries.
The minister, who was represented by John Chukwu, the Permanent Secretary of the FCTA, said that the staff strength and huge wage bill informed the decision of the FCTA to embark on a biometric exercise to identify ghost workers.
Mohammed stressed that any reasonable administration ought to first verify the actual number of its workforce before embarking on staff promotion.
He said: “The administration must ensure that manpower budgets, vacancies, establishment and budgets are provided to cater for the additional costs envisaged.
“The FCTA wants to ensure that every dime spent is well spent with commensurate value, in line with the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda.”
Mohammed reiterated that the FCTA, under his supervision, had never delayed payment of staff salary, saying that salaries were always paid on or before the 25th of every month.
He also noted that in the history of the FCTA, it was only his administration which had paid “the 13th month salary in 2011.
“The records are there.”
The minister said that the biometric exercise had been concluded, adding that over 3,000 workers had some cases to iron out.
He, however, assured the workers of justice and fairness, adding that workers who had cases to answer had been re-screened and cleared in batches, while their salaries were restored accordingly.
After all these are concluded, the administration will embark on a promotion exercise, based on declared vacancies and availability of funds.
On long-service awards for workers, the minister disclosed that his administration had already set aside some plots of land, which would be given to workers with meritorious long service.
He said: “Besides, the administration is making arrangements with reputable motor companies, in conjunction with financial institutions, to put in place a car loan scheme for workers.
“The FCTA is also working on the allocation of affordable housing plots to cooperative societies and unions to enable them to have befitting housing schemes for their members.”
Some workers of the FCTA staged a peaceful protest over issues like the nonpayment of October salary and delay in workers’ promotion.