Consultants to the FCT Area Council Service Commission have continued the quest for the payment of debt owed them by writing to President, Muhammadu Buhari and Senate Committee Chairman on FCT for their quick intervention.
The aggrieved consultants say they are being owed payment for contracts and consultancy jobs which they completed since 2020.
In continuation of the pursuit of the ave taken their plea to the This is coming after 44 of the consultants had in December 2022, petitioned the FCT Minister of State, Hajiya Ramatu Tijani Aliyu over the long over-due N600m unpaid contracts and consultancy fees held back by the area council service commission since 2020 after completion of their contracts.
In a letter dated January 23, 2023 signed by the 44 unpaid contractors and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and Chairman Senate Committee on FCT, the contractors said they had no option than to resort to writing the President and the Senate since all efforts towards getting their monies have proved abortive.
Part of the letter stated that: We the undersigned FCT Area Council Services Commission consultants wish to bring to your notice that jobs that we have dully executed for the past 2 years precisely from 2020 are yet to be paid by the management of FCT Area Council Service Commission despite the fact that the Commission receives one percent training fund allocation from the FCT Administration on a monthly basis.
The letter further said: To make matter worse, we observed that in the last six months that the new acting Administrative Secretary Alh. Musa Loko assumed office, he has been issuing new training jobs and making 100% upfront payments before training jobs are executed, a situation that is very strange to due process and the procurement rules without recourse to the previous jobs allocated and done by the consultants.
According to one of the consultant, when it became obvious that the current management were not willing to make the payments, the contractors met with the acting Administrative Secretary on the 19th of December 2022 at the Commission Board Room at 11am, where it was resolved at the meeting that they would commence payment with the December 2022 allocation.
He said having been informed that the allocation was paid for the month of December 2022, they revisited the Acting Administrative Secretary on the 28th of December 2022 to remind him of the agreement reached at the previous meeting with him and some selected management staff of the commission, but to their greatest dismay, he informed them that he would not be able to commence the payment as agreed any longer.
He said based on the series of deception from the Acting Administrative Secretary, they resolved to seek the intervention of the offices of the President and Senate Committee Chair on FCT to prevail on the Commission to make payment of all the outstanding liabilities owed to consultants.
He noted that some of the consultants are already grievously affected as result of the deliberate refusal of the FCT Area Council Service Commission to pay for the jobs dully executed by the consultants.
He said unfortunately some consultants have lost their lives and others are incurring high bank charges/interests as a result of the loans they took to execute the jobs.
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