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The Bayelsa State Government has said it would collaborate with its local councils to commence payment of pensions, gratuities and other post-service benefits to local government retirees before the end of this year.
The State’s Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo made this known while receiving the final report from the Committee for Determination of Local Government Arrears and Gratuities at his office in Yenagoa.
In a statement issued at the weekend by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara Atasi, the Deputy Governor commended the Committee for carrying out a thorough assignment in record time.
Ewhrudjakpo noted the findings and recommendations of the Committee would guide government in addressing the challenges confronting local government retirees.
He said although the stated total of N6.7 billion by the committee was quite huge, government would disburse a substantial tranche of funds to commence the gradual liquidation of the huge backlog of pensions and gratuities few months from now.
This was just as the the State number two Man frowned at the bureaucratic bottlenecks that unnecessarily slow down the processing of retirement documents of civil servants.
He however also endorsed the use of top-notch computerised system to automatically identify and eliminate those due for retirement from service.
According to him, such system will also go a long way in ensuring early preparation for payment of post-service benefits to avoid unnecessary backlog of retirement remunerations.
While decrying corrupt tendencies in the system, Senator Ewhrudjakpo also pointed out that government had not obtained the optimal productivity from its workforce because workers, in most cases, he noted were not being given the right motivation to perform.
Consequently, the state’s Deputy Governor announced that a monthly staff motivation award would be instituted for local government employees across the eight local government councils in the categories of overall best staff, best management staff, as well as best junior staff.
Presenting the Report on behalf of the Committee, its Chairman, Mr. Timipre Seipulou, said the total pension, death benefits and gratuity liabilities of retired local government employees, which had accumulated from 2010 till date, stood at N6.7 billion.
Mr. Seipulou, who is also the Technical Adviser to the Governor on Treasury, Accounts and Revenue, explained that the amount comprises N4.8bn for gratuities, N1.06bn for pension arrears while death benefits will gulp N797m.
While appealing to the state government to support the councils in offsetting the outstanding liabilities, the Committee urged the eight local governments to collectively make an initial payment of N2bn to liquidate the backlog from 2009 to 2016.
The Committee, which also urged the councils to increase their monthly contribution for pension payment from the current N141million to N212million, recommended the conduct of biometric data capture of all council workers and pensioners at least once in every two years interval.
In attendance at the presentation ceremony were the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Development, Comrade Gowon Toruyouyei, and his Local Government Service Commission counterpart, Rev. (Mrs) Amokiese Godwin.
Others were, Heads of Local Government Councils, and representatives of the labour unions at the local government level, respectively.
