Staff members of
abolished agencies
to be redeployed •
Insists on no
funding for listed institutions
THE Secretary to the
Government of the Federation
(SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, has
directed the Coordinating
Minister for the Economy/
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala to immediately
restore the salaries of federal
government workers affected
by the implementation of the
White Paper on the Report of
the Presidential Committee on
Restructuring and
Rationalisation of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Agencies and Commissions.
The Guardian had exclusively
reported last Friday that based
on a Memo from the SGF to the
Ministry of Finance to cease
funding for the affected
agencies in the 2015 budget,
the Integrated Payroll and
Personnel Information System
(IPPIS), a platform that handles
the payment of government
workers centrally, had
suspended the salaries of
workers of such agencies.
Workers of such agencies
waited endlessly in January for
their salaries to come to no
end. And when it became
obvious that government was
not forthcoming, they
compared notes with their
colleagues in other ministries,
departments and agencies not
affected by the White paper.
Further inquiries at IPPIS
indicated that government had
deliberately suspended their
salaries.
In taking the decision, as The
Guardian reported, the
accountant general of the
federation, which manages the
IPPIS platform, relied on a
letter which the SGF wrote to
the Ministry of Finance.
As reported on Friday, the
letter dated November 13, 2014
was titled ‘Agencies, Parastatals
and Commissions that should
not be provided for in the 2015
budget’ with reference No:
SGF.12/S.11/C.9/T/3. In it,
Anyim Pius Anyim, directed the
Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister for the
Economy to stop funding the
affected agencies from the 2015
budget and the directive was
immediately copied the
accountant general of the
Federation on December 1,
2014.
The letter read: “Recall that as
part of the decisions of
Government in the White Paper
on the Report of the
Presidential Committee on the
Restructuring and
Rationalization of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commissions and Agencies,
Government accepted the
recommendation that it should
cease funding the attached list
of Agencies, Parastatals and
Commissions with effect from
the 2015 Appropriation.
“Accordingly, I wish to request
that you take adequate steps to
implement these decisions by
ensuring that these Agencies,
Parastatals and Commissions
cease receiving Government
funding with effect from the
2015 Appropriation. Attached
herewith is a list of the
Agencies, Parastatals and
Commissions Affected.”
In response to the story, the
office of the SGF has now
drawn the attention of The
Guardian to another letter it
had written to the finance
ministry directing the
restoration of the salaries of
the affected agencies. The SGF
also insisted on no funding for
affected agencies.
The letter was entitled: ‘Re:
Agencies, Parastatals and
Commission that should not be
provided for in 2015 budget.’
It read: “I wish to refer to the
attached copy of my letter Ref.
No. SGF.12/S.11/C.9/T/3 of
November 13, 2014 in which I
requested for the cessation of
funding for some Parastatals,
Agencies and Commissions with
effect from the 2015
Appropriation in compliance
with the White Paper on the
Report of the Presidential
Committee on Restructuring
and Rationalization of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Agencies and Commissions.”
The SGF, Anyim Pius Anyim, had
then gone ahead to argue that
some of the agencies whose
staff did not receive salaries in
January 2015 had made
representation to that effect
and further explained that the
initial letter did not include
cessation of salaries.
Anyim told the Minister of
Finance: “It has become
necessary to clarify that the
decision in the White Paper to
cease funding for the scrapped
Agencies does not include
stoppage of their personnel
costs as the staff of the
Agencies are still bonafide
employees of the federal
government. I wish to add that
necessary steps are being taken
to redeploy the staff to other
Ministries, Departments and
Agencies by the Head of Service
of the federation in due course.
“Accordingly, I wish to request
that you kindly direct the
Accountant-General of the
Federation to restore the
payment of the salaries of all
the affected Agencies on the
IPPIS platform so as to avert
possible labour restiveness by
the staff.”
The letter dated February 5,
2015, stressed, however, that
funding for the affected
agencies remained suspended.
As reported on Friday, there is
growing anxiety among federal
government workers in Abuja
as the Presidency has
commenced the
implementation of the White
Paper on the Stephen
Oronsaye-led Presidential
Committee on the Restructuring
and Rationalisation of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commission’s and Agencies.
The White Paper had thrown
out most of the
recommendations of the
Stephen Oronsaye-led
Presidential Committee on the
Restructuring and
Rationalisation of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commission’s and Agencies.
Government, however,
accepted some of the
provisions of the report.
For instance, it rejected the
merger of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), the Independent and
Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission
(ICPC), the Code of Conduct
Bureau (CCB) and renaming of
the Code of Conduct Tribunal to
Anti-Corruption Tribunal.
It approved the scrapping of
the National Poverty
Eradication Programme
(NAPEP) but preserved the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) in its current
form. The Federal Government
also rejected the
recommendation for an
amendment in name and status
of the Federal Civil Service
Commission to the Federal
Public Service Commission. It
however, accepted the
recommendation for a single
term of five years for the
chairman and members of the
commission.


http://theguardianmobile.com/readNewsItem1.php?nid=42524

Thank God, my friends can now receive their salary. I know maybe it is because of election and the impending legal suits plus strike actions to follow. This would have put the nation into another chaos which the government is avoiding.
Good step!!!