There is serious unrest at the National Assembly as problem over the payment of appointed aides spirals out of control.
A showdown is imminent between presiding officers and management of the National Assembly over a three month unpaid salaries of political aides appointed by the officers, Daily Sun reports.
According to the report, both the presiding officers and principal officers were permitted by the Revenue Mobilization, Fiscal and Allocation Commission (RMFAC) to appoint specific number of aides who were placed on consolidated scale of remuneration.
Since the beginning of the 8th assembly, it was gathered that the management had not found it easy paying the salaries of the aides and that of established workers due to paucity of cash flow.
It was gathered that the last time political aides, appointed by the presiding and principal officers, received their salaries was in December, while those who were given letters of appointment since January were yet to be paid a dime.
This is because of the rejection of a proposal by the management to the principal officers to reduce the numbers of aides. As a result, there has been a stalemate.
Daily Sun was informed that the proposal could not scale through because of the political backlash of such moves since most of the aides were either nominated nor imposed on the principal officers by political and religion godfathers, friends, schoolmates and family friends, including in-laws.
“Majority of the aides got appointed through godfathers, many were imposed, so it will be difficult to go back home to say no more jobs when some had collected salaries.
In fact, it is like committing political harakiri,” the source explained.
It has been revealed that the management had come up with another option of opting out of the Consolidated salary scale, which would allow the management to carry out a downward review of salaries and emoluments.
“We have been informed that there will be a cut in our salaries, although we have not been issued with a letter to back it up, but it is a reality that we will not enjoy the salaries of our predecessors, it is that bad but then it is better than nothing,” one of the aides who resumed in January said.