FEDERAL civil servants are to receive their May salary soon following plans to unfrozen government accounts, it was learnt yesterday.
When unfrozen, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that have not been able to fund their expenses will have access to cash.
The Nation learnt that expense accounts of all MDAs were blocked before the exit of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“As part of a well-kept secret and tradition, when there is a change of government, the outgoing administration freezes all expense accounts to stop unscrupulous persons from making last minute withdrawals,” a source in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) told The Nation.
The source confirmed that “that is why civil servants have not been paid and all MDAs are unable to fund their expenses”.
Another official in one of the agencies operating in a private sector style environment lamented the effect of the freezing of the accounts on their operations.
The official said his agency has not been able to access its accounts in the last three weeks.
“It’s a government decision and I don’t know when it will end, but we expect that before the month ends, they should have completed their checks”, the official said.
Both officials confirmed that Remita, a receipt and expense platform of the government has been down.
When contacted, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning Mallam Aliyu Ahmed said: “There are some issues with salaries, but I can tell you there is no specific directive from the Ministry of Finance to block Remita. The issues are temporary and will soon be resolved.”
Civil servants get their salaries on or before the 25th day of every month shortly after the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
The last FAAC meeting was held on May 18 and civil servants would have been paid a week later.
Spokesman for the OAGF, Mr. Bawa Mokwa, who acknowledged the delay in the release of workers salary, could not explain what actually caused the delay.
Mokwa, however, got in touch with our reporter later to announce that “some civil servants have started receiving their salaries from the May 31”.
[The Nation]
