The Taraba State government on Friday said a shortfall in revenue allocation and the need to pay salaries as and when due were the reasons why the state government had not paid retirees gratuities running into N11bn.
The state’s Head of Civil Service, Mr. Simon Angyo, said this at the state’s accountability programme called, ‘Face the Press’.
Angyo explained that though the government was promptly paying salaries, pension and other entitlements of workers and retirees, the payment of gratuities was a challenge.
He, however, noted that the backlog of the gratuities would be cleared as soon as the economy improved.
He expressed satisfaction with the understanding reached between workers of state-owned tertiary institutions, who had earlier gone on strike over some unresolved issues.
Angyo said that the government negotiated with the unions and the engagement led to the suspension of the industrial action.
He said, “Let me inform you that as we speak, no union is on strike in the state. All the civil servants in the state who were on strike have called off the strikes.
“We have engaged the umbrella union body for our polytechnic, college of education and school of nursing as well as the Academic Staff Union of Universities and have reached a point where all the groups have agreed to call off the industrial actions.”
