DICKSON TELLS NDU TO FUND ITSELF.
During a media chat, Governor of Bayelsa state Henry Seriake Dickson has condemned the ongoing industrial action by staff of the state-owned Niger Delta University.
Mr. Dickson, who said the university was bedevilled by over-bloated workforce, urged the school management to be innovative in generating their own revenue, as it was unsustainable for it to use N500 million monthly government grants for salary alone.
Meanwhile it has been revealed that Bayelsa State loses about N24 billion every year to the activities of payroll fraudsters, the state governor, Seriake Dickson, has said.
Mr. Dickson, who disclosed this during a live interview programme on Monday, in Yenagoa, also said his administration had paid over N100 billion in the last four years on bonds which he said was deducted monthly from “source”.
The payroll fraudsters, Mr. Dickson said, perfected their acts through connivance with some financial institutions in the state, adding that there was a cabal that existed over the years who were now frustrating government’s effort to sanitise the system.
The governor said his administration was however determined to clean up the workers’ payroll in the state, and that a new fraud-free payment system had been established.
All heads of ministries, departments, agencies and school principals have been directed to prepare nominal rolls and payroll vouchers, so that they would be held responsible for any issue arising from their documents, the governor said.
He said the current system of payment of salaries in Bayelsa was no longer sustainable because of the continuous decline in the revenue accruing to the state from the federation account, and the poor revenue generated internally within the state.
“We gave some options to the leadership of labour in the state, which included 70 per cent pro-rata payment or 50 per cent across board for all civil servants,” the governor said, adding that his administration was making effort to clear the backlog of workers’ salaries.
No comments