Oyo Begs Workers Over N29bn Debt
The Oyo State government has appealed to workers and pensioners in the state to bear with the government over the plights they may be facing as a result of the N29bn wage deficit representing five-month salary arrears.
The state’s Commissioner for Finance and Budget, Mr. Bimbo Adekanmbi and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Yomi Layinka who made the appeal at a press conference in Ibadan blamed the development on dwindling allocation to the state from the Federation Account and paltry internally generated revenue.
They explained that the N14 billion federal government loan was staggered.
The forum also provided opportunity for the government representatives to explain the rationale behind the decision of the state to apply for N14.1bn from the latest financial sustainability plan of the federal government.
The Commissioner for Finance and Budget, Mr. Bimbo Adekanmbi clarified that the N14.1bn would be used to pay salaries, stressing that it would not be paid to the state in bulk, but in tranches of N1.3bn monthly for the first three months and N1.1bn monthly for the next nine months.
Adekanmbi explained that the delay in the payment of salaries and pensions to workers and pensioners in the past five months was not a deliberate action as being rumoured in some quarters but due to non-availability of fund.
As against the N84bn being bandied around as the amount the state got from the Federation Account between May 2015 and May 2016, he clarified that only N37.48bn accrued to the state coffers within the period after all statutory deductions from source and irrevocable commitments.
Within the same period, he said N40.48bn was paid directly to the local government as its share of allocation, part of which was being used to cater for the salaries of primary school teachers and local government employees.
Adekanmbi said, “Oyo State government is not deliberately denying workers their salaries. Such misconception was borne out of ignorance and sometimes deliberate mischief by those who can never see anything good in this administration.
“People have been peddling unfounded rumour that the state received N84bn from the Federation Account from May 2015 to May 2016, which they claimed we have refused to use for the payment of salaries. They made a rough calculation that with such figure, we ought to be having over N7bn monthly.”
