The Governing Council of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, has denied the allegation by the workers of the institution that the government owed them 10 months’ salaries and allowances.
The council described the allegation as false, saying the present administration did not owe the workers any backlog of salary.
It said the purported debt was inherited from the past administration and the current administration had paid three out of the 13 months of the backlog.
Members of staff of the institution had staged a protest accusing the government of not paying their salaries and allowances running for 10 months.
But the Chairman of the institution’s Governing Council, Dr Olubunmi Omoniyi, speaking on the matter in Akure, on Monday refuted the allegation, explaining that the council met 13 months of unpaid salary of the workers, but the council had to lobby to ensure three out of the 13 months owed were paid, reducing the backlog to 10 months.
According to the chairman, the staff of the institution are currently being paid as and when due while the council are still on efforts to clear the backlog.
She however noted that some elements in the school were frustrating all moves proposed to the institution to be generating funds internally.
She explained, “As I am talking with you, RUGIPO workers receive their salaries as and when due. When the union met with me in November, I told them that I had been able to go around lobbying for three months’ salaries to be paid out of the backlog. I made them realise that the present government is not owing them.
“These salaries owed accumulated since 2014 under the previous administration. There was a time when they (the previous management/governing council) also borrowed millions to pay salaries at the polytechnic, which other institutions in the state did not borrow from the bank. All these things have generated a lot of unrest in the institution.
“Other institutions when they get their subvention, augment with their IGR but for this very institution (RUGIPO), we don’t have IGR and the way of generating IGR is not forthcoming from any of them. At the meeting with members of the council, they asked how we are going to get 10-month salaries paid, I told them we would beg the government to pay because presently they have exhausted their subvention (for 2023).
“Instead of 12 months, they have received 14 months of subvention and we were informed that they cannot get additional ones. I said we would beg so that the government can assist us in defraying this debt and that is the situation on the ground.
To my dismay, I heard they went on the rampage with NASU chanting my name and that I was sitting on their money. I don’t know how a council chairman will sit on salaries not to be paid.
“As I am speaking with you, I don’t have any record of accounts of the institution or any member of my council don’t know anything about their account records. Apart from our sitting allowance which had been budgeted for. We have never collected a dime from any quarter at the institution. All efforts to get the polytechnic to generate IGR are being frustrated (by the system.)”
During the protest last Wednesday, the angry workers, under the auspices of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics, RUGIPO chapters blocked the main gate of the institution, urged the government to accede to their demands.
The leader of the protesters, Nafiu Okoro, said, “All non-teaching staff comprising of NASU and SSANIP agreed that government should pay all our outstanding salaries running to over 10 months. The N35,000 wage being paid to workers as palliatives in Ondo State should also be extended to the institution.”
