Four days to the governorship election, the Bayelsa State Government has said the delay in the sharing of monthly allocation to states by the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee is responsible for the delay in the payment of workers’ salaries...
The government, which spoke through the state Commissioner for Finance, Duate Iyabi, said though the delay in the sharing of the allocation to states was not political, the present administration’s effort to pay the salary before the election was hampered by that.
Iyabi, who made this known in Yenagoa on Tuesday, said the woes of the present administration was further compounded by the fall in the sales of crude oil in the international market and the drastic fall in the state allocation accruing from FAAC.
The commissioner stated, “We are under tremendous pressure to pay salaries. Last month, the sum of N5.8bn we received helped us to pay workers’ salaries but due to the delay being experienced, we have to look for other alternative sources to pay the workers’ salaries.
“Our situation is not helped by the inability of the NNPC to sell crude. The scenario is frightening and our efforts to generate internally generated revenue are important to sustain the frequent payment of salaries.
“As you can see from the figures, it is a marked difference from what we used to get in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Our derivation has dropped. We used to get up to N15bn and N16bn from derivation but as I talk to you today, for the month of September, we got N4.7bn. The bulk of our revenue is derived from derivation funds. With that fund vanishing, we are now under tremendous threat to increase our revenue profile from other sources.”
He assured the workers that if the allocation was received by the state before the end of the week, their salaries would be paid.
He said the government received a total gross income of N7,397,749,000 and a net inflow of N5.885bn in the month of September 2015.
He said the state government got receipts of N665.1m as internally generated revenue in the month of August which came into the state coffers in September.
Iyabi said the total expenditure for the month stood at N6.46bn out of the total gross inflow, leaving a balance of N90.2m.