The government said it pays salaries early before festive periods.

The Federal Ministry of Finance said in Abuja on Tuesday that 98 per cent of all civil servants received their December salaries before December19, 2013

This is contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Paul Nwabuikwu.

“The salaries of a small proportion of civil servants have been delayed because their MDAs are yet to update their bank accounts with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

“The accepted account number is the 10-digit NUBAN number specified by the Central Bank of Nigeria. There are also a few other issues which are now being resolved as quickly as possible.

“All unpaid salaries are intact so the claim by those who issued the statement that salary delay is a proof that the country is broke, which parrots partisan political claims, is ridiculous and groundless,” Mr. Nwabuikwu said.

The Director-General, Budget Office, Bright Okogu, told journalists that payment of salaries of civil servants were a top priority of the Federal Government.

“This is why you have not heard in many years that salaries of staff are not paid,” he said.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, also denied claims that the government had not paid December salaries of civil servants.

He said that it was the norm for the federal government to pay the salaries of its workers early during festive periods.

He said that October salaries were paid on the 10th of the month to enable Muslims enjoy the Sallah celebration, adding that December salaries were paid early because of Christmas.

Mr. Otunla said that to fast track salary payments, 265 ministries, agencies and parastatals which represented 250,000 civil servants were currently on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPIS).

“We are working with all Federal Universities to ensure that all are on the IPPIS by February1. After that, we will start with medical institutions, para-military outfits, police and then the military.

“We are doing all these in phases so that there won’t be complications like when we tried to do all of them at once.

“We have set as target, the end of 2014 to have all federal government MDAs on the IPPIS’’, he said.

(NAN)