By Chinelo Obogo
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has said it is unable to pay the severance package of N1.8 billion to former staff of the Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) as agreed with their unions in 2018 due to its compulsory contribution to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The bureau also said that all appeals made to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to ensure the release of the funds proved abortive.
In a letter signed by the Director for Post Transaction Management, Mr. Taibudeen Oduniyi, dated October 11, 2022 with the reference number: BPE/PTM/NUATE/11/2022/M10.01, addressed to the General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Ocheme Aba, the Bureau said its contribution to the TSA stopped it from fulfilling the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the former workers in 2018.
The Federal Government had in 2015 through its policy, compelled all Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to contribute 25 per cent of their revenues to the TSA.
However, a ministry source said the government had in the middle of this month, gone ahead to increase the contribution to 40 per cent, thereby adding more burdens on the MDAs.
The BPE reached the agreement with the former 982 staff of SAHCOL on November 2, 2018, after which the bureau set up of a begotiation committee to ensure the implementation of the MoU.
But, the bureau regretted that the Federal Government’s policy, which compelled all agencies, departments and ministries to contribute to the TSA was “disabling” it from implementing the agreement.
According to the letter, the BPE had written Ahmed for fund to settle the retrenched workers, but without success.
“In the light of the foregoing, it has become expedient to update you on our modest efforts to bridge communication gap from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we signed with you on November 2, 2018 to the setting up of the Negotiating Committee and our Director-General‘s willingness to offer to pay the redundancy as opposed to the stand of the Chairman of SAHCOL. It is evident that if we have the resources, this would have been a forgone issue.