SPECIAL REPORT: How official disagreements, unpaid salaries is hampering Taraba welfare scheme for women and youth
By Chuwang Dungs
Few weeks after his inauguration, Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State, directed the coordinator of Operation Keep Taraba Clean, Iliya Kefas, to hire 10,000 street sweepers to keep the streets of Jalingo and some local government headquarters across the state clean, as part of his government efforts to support women especially, widows and unemployed youth.
Mr Kefas, announced a monthly allowance of N20,000 to each of the workers but they were later paid N13,000 in the first two months.
Given reasons for the shortfall, the coordinator of the scheme said, the engagement and arrangement between him and the state government was on a monthly allowance of N15,000 not N20,000.
He further explained that the overflow of unofficial sweepers that engaged themselves without the approval of the management, made him to deduct N2000 from the stipend of those officially engaged to manage the situation.
At the onset the scheme appeared to be a success as the workers displayed hard work and commitment. However, over time, the payment became an issue between Kefas and the state government.
DAYLIGHTREPORTERS learnt that last year the workers stayed for over four months without being paid, first due to disagreement between the state Ministry for Urban Development and later with Ministry for Waste Management and Innovation with the Coordinator, regarding the handling of the scheme.
This newspaper also learnt that the workers were later paid four months arrears after the governor intervened in resolving the issue.
Delilah Dennis, a 34-year-old graduate says that she accepted the sweeping job to help assist her parents in training her siblings.
Ms. Dennis said she is proud of her street cleaning job that pays N15,000 monthly rather than staying at home to see her siblings “suffering,” without her assisting them.
Dennis, who is the firstborn in a family of six, is among the first set of sweepers, recruited.
Sharing her experience after not being paid for months, she said the last time she got her four months arrears was in February and she is aware that many people are yet to be paid.
“The last time I got paid was in February and it was our four months arrears, we are yet to get any official explanation, the only thing we hear from the public is that the reason is because of disagreement between the SSG and Iliya, our coordinator.
“Whatever the problem is we are appealing to them to resolve it because many people are affected, even though some people will think N15,000 is nothing, considering the rate of inflation in the country, it means a lot to many of us.” Ms Dennis said.
Speaking to DAYLIGHTREPORTERS Mr. Kefas confirmed that the sweepers, including himself, have not been paid for seven months, but that the governor has given approval for the payment.
He also disclosed that there are over 1000 people that are still engaged in the scheme but they have not received payment for 10 months.
According to him the governor is aware of the predicament of these women and youth and he is working towards addressing the issue.
Kefas alleged that after the governor gave them directive to work in collaboration with the palliative committee, the Secretary of the committee, who is a staff in the SSG’s office, “connived with the SSG’s and hijacked the money and they did whatever they felt like doing with the money.
“Is not true that the scheme was taken over from me by the governor, I voluntarily withdrew because I don’t want to spoil my work under any shady arrangements.
“It was the governor himself that personally gave me this job, without consulting anyone and I am sure he is seeing my efforts. I am assuring you that very soon the governor will bring the matter to an end.” Kefas said.
Explaining what led to the predicament of the sweepers, the State chairman of the Palliative Committee, Saleh Saad, acknowledged the fact that Mr Kefas, is the initiator of the scheme.
“Iliya Kefas, a hardworking fellow initiated the program starting with 2200 people sweeping Jalingo, the state capital, and the governor deemed it necessary to expand it as part of his empowerment program, he then directed that same fellow to expand it across the 16 local government areas of the state, he was asked to come up with 10,000 names on the stipend of N15,000 monthly.
He said the disagreement between Kefas, started with the Ministry for Urban Development and later with the Ministry for Waste Management and Innovation over management issues, and that led to the delay in the payment of four months allowances for the sweepers.
Mr Saad said at the initial stage of the scheme, with 2200 people, Kefas for two months was given money directly to make table payments to the workers but when it was expanded the governor directed the Ministry for Urban Development to take over and payments through individuals accounts and Kefas should remain as the coordinator.
He said the governor later moved the scheme to the Ministry for Waste Management and Innovation because of the disagreement between Kefas and officials of the Ministry for Urban Development as a way of trying to resolve the problem, but the same problem of handling the exercise resurfaced.
“He had serious problems with them, he insisted that having been the sole initiator of the scheme,he should be giving free hands to do everything without supervision, forgetting the fact that he is not a contractor but just a Coordinator, he doesn’t have any sub head, there is no way government can release huge amounts of money to an individual account without following due process.
“It was at this point that the governor directed that he should meet with the Chief of Staff and myself to see how the issue can be resolved. We met with him and we explained everything to him.
“The governor then directed the SSG to raise a memo for the payments, that was the only role the SSG played.” Saad said.
He added that the palliative committee are only playing a supervisory role to ensure that everyone is being paid.
“When the governor approved the release of the money, we asked him to submit the list of the beneficiaries for documentation and payments, that was when we discovered a lot of abnormalities. There was no data to show the current number of persons in the scheme.
“The information he gave us was not accurate and there were duplicated names, yet we did our best to correct the abnormalities and commence payment.
Given reasons why some are still complaining of no payment, Saad said some of the beneficiaries submitted the account numbers of their relatives because they don’t have personal accounts, and some of them don’t inform the beneficiaries after receiving the alerts.
Another reason he gave was that some submitted accounts of microfinance banks that have no sort code.
“The money is available, we have asked those that have challenges to go and make corrections, and come we will pay them. We passed the message through the state Coordinator and we also communicated to the local government Coordinators, many have come and we have paid them.
“Personally I went on air using the radio to clear the issue, I also directed the coordinators to passed the message using the social media.
“It was from the information that we gave that some discovered that those people that they gave their account numbers cheated them. The money is available, the governor has also released money for payments for the next two months to UBA.” He said.
On the issue of the Coordinator payment, Saad, said when the governor directed him to supervise the scheme, he also asked him to decide a monthly salary and running costs for the coordinator.
“In fairness to Kefas, I sat down with him and agreed on a monthly salary of N250,000 and a monthly running costs of N1.5million. while each of the local government Coordinators will receive N50,000 monthly.
“Before then the governor told him, that he will be walking under the palliative committee, the palliative chairman will draft his letter of appointment, he said palliative chairman go and look for a nomenclature that will suit him
“He was paid his 4 months arrears alongside the other workers, because the voucher that we raised was for the four months, and the other payment for the two months is being handled by UBA, which is on going.
“We also paid him the running costs of one month alongside with the local government Coordinators. Because the issue of the running costs was not initially captured in the money released to UBA, I have to raise a memo for him to be paid and the memo can only be approved by the governor
“I have made the memo for the two months payment and we are waiting for the approval and payment.
“Another controversy we are having is that the running costs is meant for him to visit all the local government areas and monitor the effectiveness of the scheme and bring the report to us. Unfortunately he is not doing that.
“Instead he went round collecting N3000 from each of the sweepers in the name of producing ID cards for them that was what generated problems between him, me and the SSG,
“Me and the SSG asked him to stop extorting the sweepers in the name of producing ID cards and he felt bad and started going round dishing out fake stories about us
“And while we were working for the payment of his running costs he kept calling us, including the Secretary of the palliative committee threatening to deal with us if we don’t pay him. He even sponsored a street protest calling for the removal of the SSG
“This is exactly what is happening, he want things to be done without following led down procedures because he feels he is the initiator and sole owner of the scheme.” Saad explained.
