Abdulfatah Ahmed: Kwara civil servants were fully paid before I left office

Abdulfatah Ahmed, former governor of Kwara, says civil servants in the state were fully paid before he left office. 

Ahmed said this in reaction to the allegation that his administration owed lecturers of colleges of education seven-month salary arrears.

The governor refuted the claim in a statement issued by Wahab Oba, his press secretary.

According to him, the institutions’ management was responsible for workers’ salary under an arrangement the government had with them.

He said the monthly subvention from the government was to assist them and “not necessarily for salaries”.

“Former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed maintains that salaries of state civil servants .i.e. those engaged by the Civil service Commission were fully paid up to his exit from office, ” the statement read.

” However, owing to fluctuations in federal allocations and blockage of state government account by the EFCC, payment of subvention to revenue-generating MDAs such as tertiary institutions was in arrears.

“Under budgeted arrangements with the affected institutions, however, the management was responsible for the salaries of staff. The institutions’ monthly subvention from the government was intended to support their administration, and not necessarily for salaries.

“Kwara State University and Kwara Polytechnic, for example, stepped up creative effort to enhance their IGR to meet obligations. The truth is that hundred per cent funding of tertiary institutions by the government is no longer feasible.”