Taraba gov pledges to pay gratuities

Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State has promised to start payment of gratuities to retired state and local government workers.

He said while speaking with newsmen in Jalingo that he would soon start paying retired civil servants their gratuity and pension in order to reduce the hardship being faced by them as a result of non-payment of their benefits.

Kefas also expressed the need for proper auditing of the government’s spending in order to stop leakages.

He directed that auditing work must be taken with all seriousness in order to ensure prudent management of public funds.

It would be recalled that a week to hand over, the Taraba State chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), said the state government under the leadership of  Darius Ishaku owed retired civil servants N22 billion in unpaid gratuity while hundreds of retired primary school teachers and local government workers who retired several years ago were yet to be enrolled for pension payment.

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The congress also accused the Taraba State government under Ishaku of diverting N800 million deducted from workers’ salaries for workers’ multi-purpose loan schemes and the National Housing scheme.