Kwara Workers Say No To Use Of Consultants To Pay Salaries
Agency Report
Local government workers under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in Kwara have kicked against the appointment of consultants to prepare and pay their salaries.
The NULGE kicked against this move as it is viewed as detrimental to the plight of the local government workers.
According to the body’s secretary in the state, Afolabi Abayomi, the consultants would cut into the monies of the local governments while also rendering some staff members redundant.
He said each local government has an account department that is headed by a Treasurer who is aided by a full complement of accounting staff.
The preparation of salaries and other emoluments fall under the purview of this department. Therefore, the contracting of this function to a consultancy firm will lead to loss of employment due to redundancy, the workers have said.
“Appointing consultants to prepare and pay local government workers is illegal and unconstitutional. Local governments have enough staff to prepare their workers’ salaries.
“It is a way of siphoning money from the already dwindling local governments’ allocations, imaging the consultants receiving 30 per cent from the councils’ allocations,” Abayomi said.
The 30 per cent, according to him, is a strain on the local government allocation which is not even enough to pay salaries with. He said the state government remitted just N1 billion of the N5 billion naira allocated to local governments.
The NULGE scribe, therefore, appealed to the state government to revert the appointment of consultants and let the workers in the accounts’ department continue to prepare salaries of LG staff.
Abayomi also advised the state government to grant autonomy to local governments to run their fiscal activities as they deemed fit.
So also, he called for the scrapping of the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) so local government councils can handle their finances as the third tier of government.
NAN
