…to clear civil servants’ promotion arrears with N34.2bn
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Tuesday disclosed that the Federal Government would settle the inherited debts and contractual obligations to local contractors between 2006 and 2015.
A statement issued and signed by Oluyinka Akintunde Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the Minister of Finance said Kemi Adeosun made this known while appearing before the Ad-Hoc Committee of the Senate on “Promissory Note Programme and Bond Issuances.”
According Akintunde, “she explained that the debts owed to various classes of contractors, including the terminal benefits of ex-Nigerian Airways workers, would repaid through promissory notes and bonds issuance.”
The Minister also stated that the unpaid Federal Government obligations constituted a drag on economic activity across many sectors, adding that the present Administration was determined to address the problem.
She listed the unpaid obligations to include obligations to pensioners and salary and promotion arrears to civil servants.
With regards to obligations to contractors and suppliers the minister lamented that they in turn, owe banks, thus increasing the quantum of non-performing loans. The federal government is also burdened by backlogs of unpaid electricity bills by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Others are: exporters owed funds under the Export Expansion Grant Scheme and unpaid refunds due to State Governments in respect of projects undertaken on behalf of the Federal Government.
“The Federal Government is working towards settling these inherited debts. The Small and Medium scaled Enterprises are the lifeline of our nation. The Federal Government will be stimulating the economy by paying these legacy debts,” Adeosun told members of the Ad-Hoc Committee.
The Federal Government, according to her, has approved the issuance of promissory notes and bonds to settle its contractual obligations subject to the approval of the National Assembly.
On the ex-Nigerian Airways workers, the Minister explained that their terminal benefits have been reconciled and agreed upon at N45 billion following verification.
She debunked claims by the ex-workers that there was a presidential approval for the payment of terminal benefits of N45 billion to the workers.
“There has been a misconception in the media that the President had approved the payment of N45 billion terminal benefits to the workers. There is no presidential approval and no appropriation yet for the payment of N45 billion to the ex-workers,” she said.
Akintunde noted that earlier, the representative of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Usman, told members of the Senate’s Ad-Hoc Committee that the Government has paid N34.2 billion to clear the promotion arrears to workers in the MDAs.
Usman, who is the Director of Funds in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, added that the payment process was still ongoing.
According to him, “these payments were made to the accounts of the beneficiaries in the MDAs after detailed verification of all documents attached as proof of promotion,” he said.
