Reconstitute Parastatals, Boards, Rivers NLC Tells Govt

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for the reconstitution of government owned parastatals in Rivers State as it flayed the position of some chairmen on acting capacity.

Making the position of labour public at this year’s Workers’ Day celebrations held on Sunday in Port Harcourt, Chairman of NLC in the state, Chief Chris Oruge said the present state of most of the boards on acting capacity was unacceptable.

He specifically cited the case of the Post-Primary Schools Board, which he emphasised was overdue for reconstitution in order to inject efficiency in the schools management system.

Chief Oruge while frowning at the current status of the state PPSMB remarked that the government needed to reconstitute the board and at the same time check inefficiency in the system.

The Rivers State labour chief also alleged that there was a high level of ghost workers syndrome in the sector, as he called on the authorities to investigate the matter to check expenditure leakage.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the PPSMB has debunked allegations of ghost workers problem in the agency. The official who pleaded anonymity said such claims were untrue as the board was not responsible for salary payment.

The official told The Tide that since 2009, the board had stopped paying salaries by cash, as all staffers were expected to collect their monthly pay from the banks.

The confidential source while explaining reasons why the board was still on acting capacity stated that it was the prerogative of the state government to reconstitute PPSMB or not.

His words, ‘ if you look at the policy of the present administration, I don’t think they want to continue spending huge sums of money maintaining these boards. Government saves a lot of money allowing the boards to operate as they are”.

Besides, he submitted that since the board was set up in 2007, not much had been remitted for upkeep and overhead.

The source also disclosed that currently there were plans to amend laws governing schools management boards in the country and until that was due he ruled out the possibility of reconstituting the board.