….Begs FG Not To Give Workers’ Salary To LGs
The Organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, and Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, has proposed a staff redistribution, placement and auditing exercise, to ascertain the actual numbers of local government workers, primary school teachers and pensioners in all the 774 local government areas nationwide.
Under the Joint Action Committee, JAC, of Local government based unions they also recommended an embargo on recruitment of new staff into local government including teachers for one year from the date of the Supreme Court Judgment on direct payment to ensure stability and consideration.
According to Vanguard reports, these are parts of the recommendations JAC aimed at effective operations of local government during the direct remittance of federal allocation following the recent Supreme Court granting of financial autonomy to the local governments.
The President of NUT, Titus Amba, President-General of NULGE, Ambali Akeem, and President of NUP, Godwin Abumisi, in a seven point recommendations, noted that “For a hitch free take off of the direct payment system JAC recommends that there should be staff redistribution, placement and auditing exercise to ascertain the actual numbers of Local Government workers, primary schools teachers and pensioners.
“Recruitment of new staff into Local Government and teaching should be suspended for the period of one year from the date of the Supreme Court Judgment on direct payment to ensure stability and consideration. This will enable Local Government to focus on developmental projects and real service delivery”.
Among other recommendation, the JAC equally advocated the “restructuring of supervisory institutions controlling and supervising Local Government workers. These agencies are to be restructured by way of expanding their statutory members to include chairmen of local government; heads of local government based unions and other relevant stakeholders for quality control and inclusivity.”
For Local Government Service Commission, JAC proposed for statutory membership to include: representative of Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, and representative of NULGE, while for State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, statutory membership should include: Representative of ALGON and representative of NUT.
Similarly, Local Government Staff Pension Board statutory membership should include representatives of ALGON, NUP, NULGE and NUT, while Primary Health Care Agency statutory membership should representatives of ALGON and health practitioner from the local government.
According to the recommendations, “Due to the huge deficit in infrastructural development and lack of capacity for service delivery in many local governments nationwide, JAC recommends that Federal Government should intervene in the procurement of machines and equipment such as tractors, graders, bulldozers, refuse disposal vans (tipper lorries), septic evacuation van, public address system van and supply of materials and equipment for the vocational skill acquisition centers. Funds for the procurement of these materials should be deducted from Local Government allocation overtime on installment basis.
