Sokoto State Government has clerified that the purpose of the salary deduction of its employees in the state civil service was for impacted staff member to repay their loan.
The impacted workers have taken out several loans from banking institutions, according to the government.
Speaking with reporters in his office on Wednesday, Abba Muhammed Mualledi, the Permanent Secretary of the State’s Ministry of Finance, stated that the impacted employees in the state had obtained loans from one or two financial institutions.
The PS claims that “during the previous administration in the state, the impacted members in the state civil service had collected loans from multiple financial institute.”
“The impacted financial house demanded in writing that defaulters repay their loans when I took over as the permanent secretary in the ministry of finance.
According to our investigation, the current problem on the ground resulted from the previous administration’s money being taken from their salaries in the last six months not being remitted back to the affected financial institute.
The permanent secretary went on to say that a meeting between the ministry and the salary department is currently taking place to discuss how to handle any irregularities and adjust payments accordingly.
“To discuss how to address all of those discrepancies, I met with the salary department. The committee will meet with the Nigerian Labour Congress leadership and the impacted financial institute in the state.”
He went on to say that the ministry is coordinating loan records with all financial institutions in the state to control the acquisition of loans by state employees who are civil servants.
