When the programme was announced with funfair last year, through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Special Public Works Programme (SPWP) was enthusiastically received by large numbers of Nigerians who saw this initiative as a welcome intervention to alleviate poverty in an economic climate made even more inclement by the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic. The SPWP was designed to create temporary jobs for 1,000 unemployed youths in each of the country’s 774,000 local government areas. Each of the participants in the scheme was to receive N20, 000 per month for three months, spanning October to December, last year.
When he appeared for his ministerial budget defence, the Minister of State in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Unemployment, Mr Festus Keyamo, answering questions raised by some of the senators as regards unpaid beneficiaries of the job scheme, revealed that some of the participants are still being owed N7.3 billion by the ministry. While noting that this challenge had to do largely with banking issues, Keyamo promised that all yet to be paid beneficiaries will receive their money before the end of this year.
It is, of course, unfortunate that the ministry waited for questions to be asked by the legislators before informing the public as regards the hitch experienced in meeting the ministry’s obligations to some participants in the programme. One of the senators, for instance, Senator Kabiru Barkiya, from Katsina State had told the minister that “ In my state, Katsina, some of the beneficiaries were asked to open an account with a bank that has no branch in the state”. A routine press statement or press conference to acquaint the public, including the beneficiaries, with the cause of the delay and promising that all pending payments would be settled before the end of the year would have calmed nerves and dispelled any notion or suspicion of underhand dealings in the disbursement of the fund.
Of course, we are aware that many of the beneficiaries actually started work in December, 2020, rather than October when the programme was slated to start and this could cause some delays in payment.
Going by the minister’s explanation to the Senate Committee on Labour and Employment, what has happened is an unforeseen glitch in the administrative process and not a deliberate attempt to dupe the beneficiaries or inflict hardship on them. According to the minister, “Why we insisted on certain banks was because of auditing process. This is so that we have audit instead of us chasing banks all over the place. We said the banks should use their local branches to ensure that those 1,000 people selected in the local government area go to those banks within their locality”. The minister disclosed that the ministry made adjustments in the payment mode in the last few months by opening up the process and allowing beneficiaries to use any bank in their locality. Consequently, Keyamo assured the committee, a particular bank is no longer being attached to a local government, thus making it possible for beneficiaries to make use of banks of their choice in their locality.
Also briefing the legislators, the Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the agency directly responsible for implementing the SPWP, Mr Abubakar Fikpo, gave an indication into how the fund for payment of the beneficiaries is being handled to ensure proper standards of transparency, accountability and integrity. He pointed out that the N52 billion appropriated for the scheme had been domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) with payment to beneficiaries routed through selected commercial banks. Explaining the process further, Mr Fikpo said the NDE compiles details of the beneficiaries, including their bank accounts, which are forwarded to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. The latter then instructs the CBN to disburse funds for payment.
The complaints of beneficiaries, who are yet to be paid to their legislators, must have been due to an avoidable communication gap between the participants involved and the ministry. Certainly the beneficiaries cannot be blamed if they entertain apprehensions that they were probably being denied their rights after fulfilling their own part of the bargain with the ministry. Since the ministry has the contact details of the unpaid beneficiaries, it should communicate with them through text messages on a consistent basis assuring them of the pending payment of their allowances. This will elicit confidence and inspire hope by the beneficiaries in the good faith of the ministry. Again, when a project of this scale is being undertaken by ministries, departments and agencies, it is important to have detailed and meticulous planning at every stage of the programme design and execution. That way, in this case for example, the banks in every local government area would be ascertained and necessary adjustments made to ensure smooth payment to all beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, we call on the minister to make the payment of beneficiaries’ pending allowances a priority of his ministry and ensure that his promise of paying the outstanding obligations before the end of the year is a pledge by which he is bound. While the ministry deserves commendation for trying to abide by high standards of transparency and accountability in the disbursement of the funds, it should also bear in mind the hardships faced by unpaid beneficiaries, most of who subscribed to the programme to find some succor in the current hard times.
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