The recent disclosure that the sum of N4.2 billion was budgeted as wage bill and maintenance of the unproductive Ajaokuta Steel Company in contrast with the actual number of staff in the company, has continued to generate controversy.
This came on the heels of the alarm raised by the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Senator Natasha Uduaghan, at the Senate Committee investigating alleged corruption and inefficiency at the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and National Iron Ore Mining Project Itakpe. It was said that the company’s wage bill and sundry expenses may have further confirmed the perception that the company is a conduit pipe and raised doubt about Federal Government’s sincerity to resuscitate the ailing Ajaokuta Steel Company, which has gulped billions of dollars in the past 20 years.
Our Correspondent, who visited the company on a fact-finding mission, discovered that the usual buzzing activities in the company particularly, the administrative building, has morphed into a ghost town even during the official working hours. It was gathered that the company’s staff strength as at 2017 was 2,582 and has shrunk to 1, 627, as at July, 2024, due to retirements, resignations and death.
The 1,627 staff now run three shifts. Most of the senior and junior staff, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph on condition of anonymity, argued that staff were expected to be in their offices working, while the engineers were in the factory site manning their posts and maintaining equipment. “I wish I could take you to the factory site and see things yourself but I need clearance. But I can give you a tour to the offices and see things yourself,” one of the senior staff said. But another staff member unconsciously revealed that he only comes to work twice a week due to hardship in transportation, adding that even the Sole Administrator (SOLAD), Abdul-Akaba Sumaila, is not always on his seat, except when a prominent VIP is visiting the site. He added that during the era of former Minister of Mines and Steel, Musa Mohammed Sada, about 50 staff from the North were employed into the service of the company. However, many have been transferred to other ministries, leaving two of them behind.
Explaining the irregular presence of the SOLAD, another senior staff member said the SOLAD is mostly present in Abuja with other relevant officers, to lobby, discuss the success of the company. Meanwhile, Sunday Telegraph investigation revealed that Ajaokuta Steel Staff were enlisted on to the IPPIS Platform of the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2012, as the N4.2 bn in question is for 12 months of the year. All the funds appropriated for Personnel Cost-Salaries are held in custody by the Accountant General of the Federation -IPPIS Desk and it is from there that Ajaokuta Steel Company Staff are paid monthly.
The Ajaokuta Steel Company Staff Salaries like any staff of the Federal Civil Service are based on approved Salary Structures and Ajaokuta Staff are CONPS for the regular staff and CONHES/CONMES for Medical Staff of the Company. NO staff salary is paid based conjecture. The Chairman of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited Branch, Comrade Anaoda Issa Umar, who was at the recent Senate investigation, said he was not aware of the source of Senator Natasha’s figures.
He said during the hearing that the chairman of the committee members examined the concession of the company and the issues around it, but “our Senator, Senator Natasha Akpoti was not happy with it. She said she observed that the budget for Ajaokuta is N1.2bn,and assuming the workers are paid N300,000 to N500,000 multiply that by 14,400 or 8,400, it will amount to N4.2billon. Of which we don’t know where she got her figures from. She said she sneaked in and out of the company and sometimes, she didn’t see more than 10 workers; that where are those workers” On justification for keeping the staff, Abdul-Akaba Sumaila said it was informed by the need to maintain the facility.
He said: “If you buy a vehicle, lock it and park it in front of your house for a year, do you believe that after one year, the vehicle will be in order? Everyone said no! He now said since the establishment of the Ajaokuta Steel Company, it was the presence of the workers that continued the maintenance, checking day in, day out that made those machines to be available and made us have the opportunity to still talk about the Ajaokuta Steel Company.” He added that the workers in their own wisdom even turn themselves to security of those machines because “we don’t have any other thing to protect. And what we are being paid is not commensurate with the work we do. That is very necessary for the workers to be available. There should be more employment.”
