President Goodluck Jonathan has approved N4,705,368,635 as Christmas bonus to federal workers, THE PUNCH has learnt.
But the bonanza, which was usually paid to workers in a few ministries
and agencies in December along with their salaries until 2009 when all
MDAs were included, could not be paid before the end of 2010.
The President’s approval was given on December 22, 2010, via a letter
with reference no: Pres/87/MF/182 from the Senior Special Assistant to
the President on Administration, Mr. Matt Aikhiombare, and addressed to
the finance minister.
His approval followed a memo by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun
Aganga, also dated December 22, 2010 to the President, reminding him of
the annual payment of Special Overtime and End of Year bonus to all
staff of the ministry, Office of the Accountant-General of the
Federation and others.The payment, he added, was meant to curb
fraudulent practices in the management of government finances.
Aganga had noted that the payment started with the Nigerian Customs
Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service in 1994, as a special
incentive to boost revenue collection and reduce loss of revenue due to
fraud and other sharp practices.
He explained, “At the time, targets were set and staff of the two
agencies were to get four per cent of monies realised beyond the set
targets.
“The incentive was expanded to include staff of the ministry, Budget
Office of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant-General,
being supervisors of these revenue-generating agencies. This tradition
has been in practice ever since.”
He added that in 2005, government approved that four per cent and seven
per cent of the revenue generated by FIRS and NCS respectively should
be retained by the two agencies.
However, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget Office and the OAGF
were left out, in spite of their significant contributions to revenue
generation and expenditure management.
Aganga said, “Following this development, the ministry annually applies
for presidential approval for the payment of the special incentives to
its staff.
“However, in 2009, the concept was modified and extended to include
some ministries and agencies. To this end, MDAs have made formal
requests for the payment of the incentives.
“The total amount as compiled is as detailed hereunder: FMF, OAGF &
BOF N1, 111, 398, 136 (74 per cent of request); Office of the SGF
N207, 544, 256 (50 per cent of request); Office of the HOSF N386, 426,
243 (50 per cent of request); State House, N42,570, 291 ( 100 per cent
of request); and other MDAs, N2,957,429, 709, totalling N4,705,
368,635.”
Investigations, however, showed that the non-payment of the bonanza to
workers before the end of last year had raised concerns among workers
as some ministries and agencies gave bags of rice and groundnut oil to
their staff instead of the expected cash.
The ministries of Health and Finance; Joint Admission and Matriculation
Board; Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation; Universal Basic
Education Commission; and Central Bank of Nigeria gave rice to their
staff.
A member of staff in one of the ministries told our correspondent that
workers on grade levels 1-14 got rice and oil. He expressed worry that
these items might have been given them in lieu of the cash bonus.
He said, “Instead, they gave a bag of rice and jar of groundnut oil to the workers in place of the money.”
Further, he alleged that staff of the Federal Ministry of Health
collected cash as christmas bonus when Prof. Adenike Grange was the
minister, but such payment ended with her exit.“Our suspicion is that
government has been releasing this money without it reaching us,” he
added.However, Aganga’s memo to the President stated that “the said
amount would be sourced from servicewide vote.”
Apart from this incentive-driven bonanza, workers are still battling for the payment of the new minimum wage.
The Federal Government last week claimed that it had forwarded a
minimum wage bill to the National Assembly to provide a legal framework
for the wage hike.
However, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Rules and
Business, Mr. Ita Enang, had told THE PUNCH that the House did not
receive the bill before December 14, 2010 when it went on a Christmas
break.
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