Contrary to the agreement between the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the aviation unions in 2018, BPE has said that its compulsory contribution to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) is preventing it from paying the severance packages of N1.8 billion to the former staff of the Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL).
The BPE added that all entreaties to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to ensure the release of the funds proved abortive.
The BPE 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), Comrade Ocheme Aba, cited by a select journalists, purported that its contribution to the TSA stopped it from fulfilling the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the former workers in 2018.
The federal government in 2015 through its policy had compelled all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to contribute 25 per cent of their revenues to the TSA.
However, a source close to the government, disclosed that the government had, in the middle of this month, gone ahead to increase the contribution to 40 per cent, thereby adding more burden to the MDAs.
The BPE reached an agreement with the former 982 staff of SAHCOL on November 2, 2018, after which the bureau set up a Negotiation 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 to Ahmed for funds to settle the retrenched workers, but without success.
The letter read in part: “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 had the resources, this would have been a forgotten issue.
“Also recall that at the inception of this administration in 2015, all funds of government agencies and MDAs were swept into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), thus disabling us financially.
“Given this scenario, our only option was to write to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning for funds to settle you, which we did via our memo on May 19, 2022.
“We have employed several persons to assist, our last being a visit to one of the directors with the office of the Accountant General of the federation on Friday 7, 2022.
“We are not relenting and any support from your end will be highly appreciated.”
The BPE appealed to the workers to show more understanding in getting the issue resolved.
However, there are strong indications that the workers who had been sacked since 2010 by the new owners of SAHCOL (now Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO Plc), may cause industrial unrest in the sector any moment soon.
One of the former workers who claimed anonymity said that they were already mobilising their members through the industry unions to organise a protest in the sector in November.
The former workers said: “We have waited enough. We have been laid off since 2010. We have taken all the steps to ensure that we were paid as agreed, but unfortunately, we are yet to be paid.
“The BPE in 2018, after agreeing that we were entitled to the several packages, promised to pay us, but four years after this, we are yet to get anything from the bureau.
“They are even asking us to assist them in getting the money out of the Ministry of Finance. How can we do that when we are not the government?”