Ekiti: Bank Interest Charges On Workers Loan Will Make Inconsequential Government Efforts Even With Payment Of Salary Backlogs….
- Pleas for Government to interface with banks…
- A psychologically healthy workforce is Pride and joy for any administration.
- How possible it is to get the Banks’ agreement to revert to individual loan balances before the FORCEFUL ORDER to close down their salary accounts is top amongst the workers request.
Prelude….
When the administration of former governor Fayose battled some commercial banks in the state, the Accountant General issued a letter to Civil servants directing they open new salary account in prescribed banks, no recourse to mid and long term implications was on consideration!!
Banks are primarily in their line of activity for profit making and not charity….
The bank loan facilities extended to civil servants was based on the premise of their salaries serving as security; the closure of these salary accounts automatically became an issue for both the workers and the banks.
The banks affected by the account closures have had to adopt a position of self preservation…. Outstanding Loan facilities probably had to be converted to overdraft otherwise a scenario of “bad debt” would have arisen….this is not good on any manager’s portfolio.
The conversion of erstwhile “time fixed loans” to overdraft facility definitely attracts a higher interest rate, I gather as high as four folds.
Who takes the fault for this maladministration?
Should/Can the ethos of “vicarious liability/government been a continuum” come into play?
A responsible Government must rationalize actions/policy before implementation is the take-away from this unfortunate scenario.
Pleas that the JKF/APC Government, as part of it’s “#EkitiValuesRestoration Agenda” cum poverty reduction strategy find a solution to preventing the otherwise avoidable debt burden and enslavement of an entire workforce as perpetuated by the previous administration are gathering momentum.
A psychologically healthy workforce is Pride and joy for any administration.
How possible it is to get the Banks’ agreement to revert to individual loan balances before the FORCEFUL ORDER to close down their salary accounts is top amongst the workers request.
A reliable source from within top civil service cadre alleged that one of the affected Banks has written a request letter to the Head of Service to direct affected workers to re-open their salary accounts that were brusquely closed.
The concern and agitation regards this request from the bank(s) is that if the entire process is not reviewed with a Human face, a lot of workers will have no “take-home” wage in the next one year even as the owed salary backlogs payment commences and ultimately payment as at when due.
