Govt orders restoration of affected workers pay over Oronsaye report

•  Staff  members of  abolished agencies  to be redeployed

•  Insists on no funding for listed institutions

THE Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, has directed the Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to immediately restore the salaries of federal government workers affected by the implementation of the White Paper on the Report of the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions.

  The Guardian had exclusively reported last Friday that based on a Memo from the SGF to the Ministry of Finance to cease funding for the affected agencies in the 2015 budget, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a platform that handles the payment of government workers centrally, had suspended the salaries of workers of such agencies.

  Workers of such agencies waited endlessly in January for their salaries to come to no end. And when it became obvious that government was not forthcoming, they compared notes with their colleagues in other ministries, departments and agencies not affected by the White paper.  Further inquiries at IPPIS indicated that government had deliberately suspended their salaries.

  In taking the decision, as The Guardian reported, the accountant general of the federation, which manages the IPPIS platform, relied on a letter which the SGF wrote to the Ministry of Finance.

  As reported on Friday, the letter dated November 13, 2014 was titled ‘Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions that should not be provided for in the 2015 budget’ with reference No: SGF.12/S.11/C.9/T/3. In it, Anyim Pius Anyim, directed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy to stop funding the affected agencies from the 2015 budget and the directive was immediately copied the accountant general of the Federation on December 1, 2014.

  The letter read: “Recall that as part of the decisions of Government in the White Paper on the Report of the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, Government accepted the recommendation that it should cease funding the attached list of Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions with effect from the 2015 Appropriation.

  “Accordingly, I wish to request that you take adequate steps to implement these decisions by ensuring that these Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions cease receiving Government funding with effect from the 2015 Appropriation. Attached herewith is a list of the Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions Affected.”

  In response to the story, the office of the SGF has now drawn the attention of The Guardian to another letter it had written to the finance ministry directing the restoration of the salaries of the affected agencies. The SGF also insisted on no funding for affected agencies.

The letter was entitled: ‘Re: Agencies, Parastatals and Commission that should not be provided for in 2015 budget.’

  It read:  “I wish to refer to the attached copy of my letter Ref. No. SGF.12/S.11/C.9/T/3 of  November 13, 2014 in which I requested for the cessation of funding for some Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions with effect from the 2015 Appropriation in compliance with the White Paper on the Report of the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions.”

  The SGF, Anyim Pius Anyim, had then gone ahead to argue that some of the agencies whose staff did not receive salaries in January 2015 had made representation to that effect and further explained that the initial letter did not include cessation of salaries.

  Anyim told the Minister of Finance: “It has become necessary to clarify that the decision in the White Paper to cease funding for the scrapped Agencies does not include stoppage of their personnel costs as the staff of the Agencies are still bonafide employees of the federal government. I wish to add that necessary steps are being taken to redeploy the staff to other Ministries, Departments and Agencies by the Head of Service of the federation in due course.

  “Accordingly, I wish to request that you kindly direct the Accountant-General of the Federation to restore the payment of the salaries of all the affected Agencies on the IPPIS platform so as to avert possible labour restiveness by the staff.”

The letter dated February 5, 2015, stressed, however, that funding for the affected agencies remained suspended.

  As reported on Friday, there is growing anxiety among federal government workers in Abuja as the Presidency has commenced the implementation of the White Paper on the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commission’s and Agencies.

  The White Paper had thrown out most of the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commission’s and Agencies. Government, however, accepted some of the provisions of the report.

  For instance, it rejected the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent and Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and renaming of the Code of Conduct Tribunal to Anti-Corruption Tribunal.

  It approved the scrapping of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) but preserved the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in its current form. The Federal Government also rejected the recommendation for an amendment in name and status of the Federal Civil Service Commission to the Federal Public Service Commission. It however, accepted the recommendation for a single term of five years for the chairman and members of the commission.

  It okayed recommendation for the scrapping of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) and directed the attorney-general of the federation to initiate necessary action for the abolition. Government further directed that the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) should perform the function of Fiscal Responsibility Commission, among others.