After 20 Years, FG Begins Final Push To Settle Workers’ Outstanding Benefits
By HALIMA TAKWAS
THE Federal Government has launched a final push to resolve outstanding entitlement claims involving workers disengaged over the last two decades.
Officials say the exercise will identify genuine beneficiaries who received incomplete payments or have yet to receive their entitlements.
The Bureau of Public Service Reforms is conducting the verification exercise in the North-East, beginning with affected workers and beneficiaries in Gombe State.
Director-General of the Bureau, Dasuki Arabi, said the government intends to bring the long-running issue to a close.
He assured genuine claimants that the verification process would help determine what each beneficiary is owed.
President Bola Tinubu approved the exercise as part of efforts to resolve the remaining cases.
Several government institutions are participating in the process.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Auditor-General for the Federation and anti-corruption agencies will work with the Bureau to verify records.
Their involvement aims to ensure that only legitimate claims receive payment.
Arabi said the government had resolved more than 99 per cent of cases linked to unpaid workers’ entitlements.
Attention has now shifted to the outstanding claims.
Some beneficiaries died before receiving their money.
Their families and legal representatives are pursuing the claims on their behalf.
The government has therefore called on former workers who remain unpaid, or who believe they received less than they were entitled to, to come forward.
They are expected to submit their complaints and supporting records for verification.
If successfully completed, the exercise could close one of the Federal Government’s longest-running public service entitlement disputes.
It could also provide long-awaited relief to former workers and families who have spent years seeking payments owed to them.
