Some civil servants in Benue State have queried the payment of 6,000 Naira, as an induction fee in the face of months of owed salary arrears.
The complaints arose among the newly employed civil servants from 2012, particularly from the Board of Internal Revenue Service (BIRS) absorbed into the service in 2014, but were yet to be paid their bailout funds.
The workers had participated in the three-day induction course organised by the Office of the Benue State Head of Service and expressed optimism that it was a good start in the civil service.
However, some of the workers, Dorathy Wergba and Agbata Thomas, decried the 6,000 Naira induction fee which they said was too high, considering that the State Government was yet to pay their outstanding salaries of two months and four months bailout sums.
A former BIRS Staff, Shadrack Ugah, also stressed that the agency was unable to pay the fees due to non-payment of salary arrears and bailout.
Giving the government’s side of the story, the Permanent Secretary in-charge of Establishment, Office of the Benue State Head of Service, Iorhii Dooga, defended the 6,000 Naira collected from the inductees.
As stated by the government official, the payment was to enable the service hold the induction programme, as the government no longer funds the course.