The Chairman of the Taraba State Environmental and Sanitation Agency, Illiya Kefas, has defended the decision to reduce the monthly allowance of street sweepers under the “Operation Keep Taraba Clean” programme, saying it was an internal measure aimed at sustaining the agency’s operations.
Kefas clarified on Tuesday that the adjustment, which cut workers’ pay from N15,000 to N10,000, was not ordered by Governor Agbu Kefas, but was taken by the agency to manage rising operational costs and an expanding workforce across the state’s 16 local government areas.
His clarification followed earlier comments where he had linked the reduction to a directive from the governor, a position he later corrected.
He explained that the agency’s growing responsibilities and number of staff made it necessary to restructure its spending to keep the programme running.
“The arrangement was an internal decision to sustain the activities of the agency and not a directive from the governor,” he said.
The sanitation programme has seen multiple pay adjustments since its launch in 2023. Workers initially earned N20,000 monthly, which was reduced to N15,000 in 2024, and later further cut to N10,000 in 2026.
Kefas said the agency now oversees different categories of workers, including coordinators, supervisors, monitoring teams, and over 100 casual staff involved in sanitation duties across the state.
“We have 16 Local Government Coordinators, including Ngada and Yantu. We pay some N200,000, while the least among them earns N100,000. We also have a monitoring team,” he said.
He added that supervisors and other field staff also receive monthly allowances, while the agency spends significant sums on logistics, including feeding casual workers engaged in daily sanitation activities.
“We also have supervisors. The least we pay them is N50,000 per person, and we have 10 of them,” he added.
According to him, the agency spends over N5 million monthly on feeding casual workers across the state.
“There are more than 100 casual staff across the 16 local governments. We spend over N5 million on feeding the boys who work on a daily basis,” he said.
Kefas maintained that the financial pressure of running sanitation operations made the pay adjustment unavoidable.
In a follow-up message to journalists, he defended the decision further, stating that participation in the programme was voluntary and those dissatisfied were free to leave.
“I have the right to ask my people to work at N10,000. Anyone interested will work, and if you are not, you can go your way,” he stated.
He also questioned criticisms of the decision, asking whether journalists understood the financial challenges involved in managing the agency, while citing limited allocations and rising wage commitments as contributing factors.
