States As They Stand In Terms Of Salary Payments ...Anambra, Borno, Lagos, Sokoto Sparkle As Kogi And Benue Look Dirty

A survey conducted by a Civic Tech Organisation, BudgIT, has revealed that only fifteen (15) states in Nigeria have been consistently impressive with their up to date and full payment of civil servants’ remuneration.

These states are: Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Borno, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kastina, Kebbi, Lagos, Ogun, Plateau, Sokoto, Cross River and Yobe state.

The survey which covered primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, local government workers, state independent workers, pensioners and state secretariat workers, also showed that about 20 states in the country owe their workers including pensioners their entitlements ranging from one to 36 months.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, June 6,the BudgIT said: “In particular, we discovered that many states have defaulted in the payments of pensions and gratuities,” the statement read.

“From the survey carried out, we discovered that apart from the fact that 16 states which are yet to pay the pensions of former civil servants in their service, 8 of these states have not paid their pensioners at least 12 months’ pensions, while states like Imo, Taraba and Niger owe pensions of about 2 to 3 years.

“Notably, these pensioners expressed how unhappy they are, their dissatisfaction with the government and how hard it has been for them to survive.

“In addition to outstanding pensions, we note from our survey, that across all categories, states like Kogi, Abia, Benue, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo have not paid their workers’ salaries for this year 2017; owing at least 4 months’ salary.

The Civic Tech Organisation asked the federal government to “tighten its accountability structures” in response to the promise of governors to pay salaries after another tranche of Paris Club refund is released.

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“State governors have recently canvassed that the federal government should provide another tranche of Paris Club refund to offset salaries and other liabilities.

“We hereby ask the federal government should tighten its accountability structures for the series of extra-statutory funds that are provided to state government, which currently has reached N1.75tn.

“State governments need to more in terms of transparency and the use of funds… it is pertinent to state here that only Bauchi, Kogi, Kano, Kaduna, Edo, Gombe and Yobe have provided their full 2017 budgets to the public,” the statement added.

Just like BudgIT conducted it survey using primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, local government workers, state independent workers, pensioners and state secretariat workers, ALEDEH has categorized the states as sparkling clean, clean, dull, bad and dirty.

Here are the states and the categories:
* Spakling clean states: