BPE pays N373 billion to electricity workers

DIRECTOR General of the Bureau of Public enterprises (BPE), Benjamin Ezra Dikki has informed members of the National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria (NUEE) that 46,744 out of the 47,913 bonafide staff, representing 98 per cent of the workforce of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have so far been paid their entitlements amounting to N373 bilion.

Addressing members of the Union led by its National President, Comrade Mansur Musa who came to the Bureau’s office in Abuja last week to protest the non-payment of severance benefits to some of their members, Dikki said that only 1,169 of the 47,913 workers of the defunct PHCN were yet to be paid.

He said the outstanding number included workers that had exited before the severance payment commenced; those being processed for validation; and those yet to be identified by PHCN as bonafide workers and thus not verified.

He disclosed that t 2,791 retired staff of the PHCN representing 65 per cent of the retirees had been paid N16. 4 billion with an outstanding number of 1,516 retirees.

According to him the number is made up of those who have so far failed to turn up for verification; were still undergoing further verification and the next of kin of deceased staff that have so far not been able to produce the letters of administration..

Dikki said for the active staff the number of beneficiaries was processed in 30 batches while for the retirees, it was in 11 batches.

He appealed to the over 1,000 ex-workers of the PHCN that had not presented themselves for verification to come forward for the exercise as the government would not pay any one that had not been verified.

On the Next of Kin (NOKs) of the deceased staff of the PHCN, the DG urged the union officials to assist those who were yet to get the appropriate court papers for payment, to obtain them for a seamless processing of their entitlements.

He told the union members that many government agencies were involved in the payment of their entitlements which required such agencies applying their processes in executing the task. He therefore appealed for understanding from them.

Dikki assured the union that to quicken the payment to those who were yet to benefit, a committee between the union and BPE would be set up to sort out the issues.

Earlier, National President of NUEE, Comrade Mansur Musa had decried the non-payment of the severance benefits to some of the members which had brought untold hardship to them.