The disclosure by Mr McJohn Nwaobiala, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education, speaking on behalf of the minister of education that the salary arrears of polytechnic staff was omitted in the 2014 budget may spell a setback on the efforts of the House Committee on Education to resolve the strike.
While speaking during a meeting with the House Committee on Education and ASUP Mr McJohn Nwaobiala said the government is willing to pay the salary arrears, but cannot give assurance when that will be possible because there is no provision for that in the 2014 budget.
In his words, "If I had a pit where there is money in the ministry to settle this, as I leave here now, we will settle it. In this year 2014; we don't have a provision for settling these arrears. The minister had requested for a special budgetary intervention to enable us to settle it.
I can't make a commitment to say that I will or that the ministry will release these funds in April or July. What I’ll say is that my minister needs to consult with the SGF and minister of Labour so that we can know how we can get the funds".
