Bauchi clears N64b workers pension, salary arrears

The Bauchi State government has paid over N64 billion outstanding pension and salary arrears to retirees and workers in the last 150 days, the state Governor, Bala Mohammed has said.He added: “For the fact that this administration does not believe in blame game, we have succeeded in paying all outstanding pension and salary arrears up to the tune of N64 billion in the last 150 days of coming into power to alleviate the sufferings of the people.”
 
The governor alleged that the anti-people’s practice was encouraged by the last administration, which perpetuated massive corruption with over bloated monthly salary bills that left to the breakdown of education, health and basic infrastructure in the state.The governor disclosed this recently in Bauchi while interacting with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Press Corps who were in Bauchi State for a two-day retreat. 
 
The retreat had ‘The next level agenda, -X-raying presidential mandate for FCTA’ as theme.He stated that to arrest the ugly trend, civil servants in state have been warned to produce their Bank Verification Numbers [BVN] or forget their salaries.“Every civil servant must produce his or her BVN from now on to be qualified to receive monthly salary. This is aimed at identifying and flushing out ghost workers in the state.”
 
Mohammed, who is the immediate past Minister of the FCT, said that it is worrisome to note that out of the present 101,000 civil servants in the State, only 41,000 have their BVN, a situation, he said, would no longer be condoned.
 
According to him: “Before we came in after the 2019 general elections, the state was owing over N170 billion putting it in the 4th position of states who could not pay workers salaries as well as their pensions.“I have come to give back to the people of Bauchi for making me the Bala Mohammed that I am today as we have executed several roads worth over N17 billion, build new health centres, refurbish our primary and tertiary schools across the local governments in the state.”
 
He also commended the FCT Minister, Musa Bello for doing the needful by going ahead to complete all the projects that were started by past administration.Earlier in his welcome address, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Abubakar Kari called on Nigerian journalists to support the current efforts at rebuilding Bauchi State for the benefit of all.He noted: “We are not say you should not criticize us if we are not meeting up on our electoral promises, but do also commend us if we are doing well, that will further spur us to do more.”