that the state is now unable to pay salaries regularly anymore.
The governor,
yesterday at the Government Office Annex, Warri, where he convened a
stakeholders meeting on, “Creating A Peaceful Atmosphere for the Development of
Delta State and the Niger Delta Region,” said: “The larger Nigerian government
has been in financial crisis over dwindling oil prices.
Increased production
would have helped cushion the impact but instead we are faced with destruction
of oil assets.
“Dealing with dwindling oil prices and destruction of oil
assets, we are now producing just half of our quota.
And we are all really
worried because of the greater effect is on Delta State. Before now we receive
up to N20 billion monthly, but what we have
now is so low. Last time we got N3.4 billion.
Last month what we
received has dropped to N3 billion. We now get 1/7th of what we use to have.”
The governor said, going by the current financial position, the state was no
longer in a position to pay salaries regularly just as Internally Generated
Revenue, IGR, has also nosedived. “We met a wage bill of N7.4 billion.
Our
workforce has been unchanged. With biometrics and rationalization, we trimmed
that to about N6.8 billion. With the situation, we have in our hands, we are
not in position to pay workers regularly anymore.
“If we produce our normal
volumes, we won’t have it this bad. We have had to reduce support to the
councils. And apart from poor income from Federation Account, IGR has also gone
down because money is not circulating.
“I do know that we were receiving
reasonable Pay As You Earn, PAYE of up to N1.5bn and N1.6bn monthly.
That has
gone down. We should realise there’s a challenge.
Political office holders,
traditional rulers should build peace. Delta State has been on the news for the
wrong reasons and that’s not where we want to be,” Okowa added.
Source: Vanguardngr
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