From all indications, Governor Abdulrahman Andulrasaq does not have the intention of paying the minimum wage to the third tier of Government.
The First thing he did was to suspend the Councils, the Supervisory Councillors indefinitely. All these Chairmen and Councillors have been paid half of their salaries and allowances. The half that are unpaid are still kept with the Governor. And he claims he is not interfering with the affairs of the Local Government.
The Internally Generated Revenue are still being collected by the Kwara State Internal Revenue Board and yet Governor Abdulrasaq says at the industrial Court that the Local Government in Kwara State is autonomous. Where is the autonomy?
All the fraudulent money collected from the SUBEB belongs to the Local Governments. Yet Governor Abdulrasaq has sat down on the money. And yet he claims he does not interfere with the Local Government. The money runs into millions of Naira.
The controversial Three hundred and fifty million Naira (#350,000,000) deducted by the Ministry of Finance monthly which led to the resignation of the pragmatic Aisha Ahman Pategi belongs to the Local Government and not the State Government.Governor Andulrasaq still keeps the money.
All the funds transferred to the Microfinance Banks and N.U.T Cooperative belong to the Local Government. Yet the Governor still keeps the millions of Naira recovered
The monthly salary of SUBEB is about #700Million. But he releases #1.1 Billion Naira monthly to SUBEB.
An extra #400 Million belonging to the Local Government is over paid monthly.
He has been telling Kwarans that he would collect Billions of Naira as Counterpart funding for infrastructural development of our primary and Junior secondary schools. He has deliberately refused to satisfy the conditions for having access to the big money from the National Primary Education Commission in Abuja.
Up till today he has not constituted the Board of State Primary Education Board. There is no Chairman or Chief Executive of the Board appointed. No Board members are appointed. The Governor has not enumerated the schools he is going to use the money for. He has not told the people or the National Primary Commission how much he is going to spend on each school. And yet he has been going to Abuja NPEC to collect the Billions of Naira.
When he talks about infrastructures at the Local Government he was never too serious about it. On the issue of screening at SUBEB he also not serious about it. Patriotic citizens wrote to the EFCC about the last screening in SUBEB as follows:
“Ghost workers were screened and cleared, workers who are absent from duties for more than one year were screened and cleared; those with more than one BVN were screened and cleared; staff working in more than one establishment and collecting more than one or two salaries were screened and cleared. The children of officers who are still in School were screened and cleared. Time Books to check the authenticity of staff were kept at the Ministry of Education Headquarters without being used for the screening. Dismissed officers were screened and cleared and the guidelines for screening were not strictly followed.”
Thus, the monthly bill of #602,000,000 of Local Government staff and the #1,134,000,000 of SUBEB staff are therefore fraudulent.
“The screening must be redone if there should be any anti-corruption in Kwara State. The refusal of Government to constitute a new Primary Board is a disservice to the State.
Another factor is that those perpetrating fraud and corruption are still kept at SUBEB and in the service of this administration”
“Advise the Governor to constitute the Board of SUBEB and give Marching Orders to the members to fish out Ghost workers and fraudulent practices from their establishment. This is the only way we can help Anti-Corruption in Kwara State.”
The EFCC took prompt action after getting this write up and fished out 1,400 Ghost workers from SUBEB.
The Ghost workers are still present at SUBEB. Fraudulent practices are still on going.
To have an excellent screening exercise,the Nigeria Union of Pensioners and her members should be invited to help in the screening of Local Government workers. They know all the workers and their history and antecedents. It doesn’t matter to pay them the amount used in the last screening. They can be paid just 50% of the fund used in the last screening. If this is done, Millions of Naira shall be realised from the exercise. This will help in the payment of the minimum wage.
One of the reasons why workers are supporting him is because he promised to pay the minimum wage. He also promised he would not discriminate against the Local Government workers and pensioners. He has already reneged on these promises. These Grassroot workers may withdraw their support for him from now till eternity.
Governor Abdulrasaq should look back to the history to avoid same stories of former governors in the state. These workers initially plotted the downfall of Governor Lawal and Governor Ahmed.
Governor Abdulrasaq can generate more funds by looking into the areas that can bring in revenue to the State and Local Government.
