The Bauchi State Government has commenced the payment of outstanding gratuity arrears owed to retired civil servants, releasing N10 billion towards clearing accumulated obligations dating back to 2012.
Governor Bala Mohammed, represented by his Deputy, Auwal Jatau, flagged off the exercise on Wednesday during a ceremony in Bauchi, with the first batch of retirees set to receive their entitlements.
The government said subsequent payments would be made in batches until all eligible retirees covered by the validated records receive their outstanding gratuities.
Mohammed said the state had validated records showing outstanding gratuity obligations of N11.704 billion involving 5,736 beneficiaries between 2012 and 2016.
The liability comprises N6.133 billion owed to 3,570 state government retirees and N5.579 billion owed to 2,256 local government retirees.
The governor said the administration was committed to addressing the long-standing obligations owed to retirees who had waited for years to receive their entitlements.
“It is with a proper sense of duty that I stand to perform a function close to my heart – to pay outstanding arrears,” he said.
Mohammed said his administration inherited a backlog stretching to 2012 amid difficult fiscal conditions but had resolved to balance infrastructure spending with attention to the welfare of workers and retirees.
He said a Verification and Disbursement Committee headed by Alhaji Sabiyu Baba had been established to oversee the verification and payment process.
The governor directed that the exercise be conducted transparently and without unnecessary bottlenecks, stressing that retirees should not be subjected to humiliation during the process.
The first phase of the payment is expected to cover retirees from the 2012 and 2013 period, with subsequent batches to be processed according to the applicable retirement years and verification of records.
The Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Sulaiman, said the legislature had approved the state government’s request for financing to commence the payment.
He described gratuity as an entitlement earned through years of public service and said the Assembly would continue to provide legislative oversight for the exercise.
Sulaiman said the payment was expected to begin with about 1,700 retirees across the state.
In his goodwill message, the representative of organised labour, Ibrahim Maikudi, commended the government for prioritising workers’ welfare.
Maikudi said Bauchi was among the first states in Nigeria to implement the N70,000 minimum wage for civil servants and the first state in northern Nigeria to implement a N32,000 minimum pension.
“We are witnessing another gesture today, which is the flag-off of payment of accrued gratuity which this administration inherited,” he said.
He said the current phase covers retirees from 2012 to 2013, with the exercise expected to continue through subsequent years until the outstanding arrears are addressed.
The Executive Chairman of Ningi Local Government Area, Yahuza Adamu, who spoke on behalf of other local government chairmen, described the payment as an economic intervention that would inject funds into the state economy.
“What we are doing today is beyond socio-political, it is economic in nature. We are injecting funds into the public domain in Bauchi State and with the multiplier effect, it is going to change the economic trajectory of the state,” he said.
The flag-off ceremony was attended by pensioners, labour leaders and chairmen of the 20 local government areas in Bauchi State.
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