Diversion Of Bailout Funds: Enugu APC Berates Governor Ugwuanyi, Describes His Action Misplaced Priority

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Sunday, April 24th, 2016

By IGNATIUS OKPARA, Enugu

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Enugu state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has berated the Enugu State Government for its alleged diversion of bail-out fund received from the federal government for the payment of workers salary arrears.

Recent reports by the Independent Corrupt Practices And other Related offences Commission ICPC and Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, had it that most of the 23 states that accessed the bail out cash from the President Mohammadu Buhari led federal government for the settlement of arrears of workers’ salaries and emoluments, diverted the funds for other purposes.

Such misapplication of funds according to some workers in Enugu state who craved anonymity with AFRICAN EXAMINER, defeated the essence of the government’s effort to provide succour for the nation’s workers.

The comprehensive analysis carried out by ICPC, in conjunction with the, NLC, also revealed that many of the states deliberately lied that they were owing their workers huge debts when the reverse was the case.

A major feature of the analysis which was released by the ICPC and signed by its Commissioner for Public Enlightenment, indicated that many of the states failed to apply the amount received from the federal government to settle their indebtedness to their workers, leaving them enmeshed in huge arrears of salaries to the staff despite collecting the bailout cash.

However, a breakdown of the comprehensive analysis indicates that out of the 27 states that applied for the fund, only 23 had been paid by the Central Bank of Nigeria as at the end of December 2015.

In Enugu State, the report showed that while it was granted N10,174,238,681.19 as bailout fund as at 16th November 2015, analysis of the documents submitted revealed that, the State disbursed N5, 967,238,681.19 from the bailout fund to settle domestic debts and claimed that funds for the payments of Staff salaries and emoluments was not yet accessed.

Reacting to the development, the Enugu state APC, through its publicity secretary, Mrs. Kate Offor on saturday, said the action of the State government was condemnable.

The party stressed that the government should have used the money to pay workers’ salaries.

The statement maintained that the government was insensitive to the plight of the workers, when it knew its position as the highest employer of labour.

The statement read: “What is more domestic than debts owed workers and pensioners? If workers are paid when due, workers will be happy and the economy of the state will flow as people will have more money in their pockets and go to buy

“The action of the Peoples Democratic Party led government in Enugu State is bad.

“Money meant for the payment of workers’ salaries should not be diverted; that’s why the APC is ready to give Enugu people an alternative in 2019”, the party declared.