FCT Teachers Lament Non-Payment Of Salaries Since January

Hundreds of secondary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory have been thrown into untold hardship due to non-payment of their salaries since January this year following migration to the integrated payroll and personnel system (IPPIS).

Those who have been paid their salaries up to date have also complained of short payment and non-issuance of pay slips.

Many of the teachers had besieged the FCT Secondary Education Board and the Universal Basic Education Board offices demanding explanations for what they called the “chaotic” implementation of teachers’ salaries by IPPIS.

A female Junior secondary school teacher who spoke to THE WHISTLER at UBEB office on Friday, said she had not received any salary since January this year.

“All of us here have not been paid since January but some of our colleagues were paid. Why should that happen?, “ she lamented, adding that the UBEB officials told them the problem was with the IPPIS.

One of the teachers who identified himself as Ade said he had received salaries up to April but complained he was not being paid his full salary.

“My monthly salary was N210 up till December 2019, but since January they’ve been paying me N95,000 without any explanation. We have not been giving our pay slips as they used to do for us to know what deductions were being made,” he said, adding that teachers expected their salaries to increase after adjustments to the minimum wage but instead it was decreasing.

According to Ade, some teachers on the same salary grade level also received different payments while many teachers have not received any salary in the last four months.

Investigations by THE WHISTLER showed that the non-payment of some teachers was due to problems with their banks. Some of those banks, like Diamond and Access, have merged  while some had sort code issues.

Also, an official of SEB said many of those who had not received any salary since January were newly recruited staff who were not captured under the IPPIS, but would have to wait until after the pandemic.

THE WHISTLER also saw a memo written to all teachers by the Nigerian Union Of Teachers, FCT Chapter, explaining its effort to ensure all issues around teachers’ salaries were quickly resolved.

The memo, signed by the union’s publicity secretary,  Haruna Samson,  said the union appreciated  the patience of members over the “untold hardship we are all passing through since the migration of salaries to the IPPIS.”

The statement continued:  “The new system which ordinarily is meant to correct any irregularity in payment of salary has adversely affected us in one way or the other.

“We wish to inform you that the Union has not rested on it’s oars from the beginning of the implementation of IPPIS. There is no month that series of meetings and follow ups had not been done, after every meeting and agreement the implementations will not be done.

“We are aware that in January over 3000 teachers where not paid their salaries, between February to April, with the effort of the union the number have reduced from 3000 to 400 and after April salaries we have less than 200 yet to be paid, it is hoped that all issues concerning nonpayment of salaries since January will be finally over by May.”

The Chairman of the FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Kabir Ibrahim Matazu, could not be reached for comments. But the board’s public relations officer, Mohammed Lawal, told this website that the issue of non-payment had been sorted out this week while the other challenges would soon be resolved.

“Our accounts department has worked on the issues throughout this week and I believe all teachers must have received their salaries this week. The problems are due to challenges with the new payment system. They have paid them their salaries but some people still have issues with the salaries,” he stated.

Ahmed Idris, the Accountant General of the Federation, could also not be reached for comments on the issue. He did not pick his calls and did not reply a text message sent to his phone.