Osun state government, yesterday gave account of how it expended the first tranche of the Paris Club loan refund it collected last week of December, 2016.
It will be recalled that the state’s share from the Paris Club loan refund had generated criticism from the opposition parties in the state, who alleged that the fund had been diverted by government.
However, a statement issued by the state’s Accountant General, Akintayo Kolawole, claimed that government expended a sum of N11.744,237,793.56 to cater for workers salaries, pension as well as leave bonuses for the last four months of the year 2016.
The statement quoted Kolawole as saying that in December 2016, the total sum of N13,645,546,673.04 was used to clear salaries, leave bonuses and pension arrears for four months.
He further explained that a sum of N11,744,237,793.56 was received from the federal government in November 2016 as first tranche of the Paris Club refund.
The statement reads: “The revenue apportionment committee agreed that the Paris refund be used in paying salaries and that the sum of N1.9 billion be added by the state government from the Internal Generated Revenue to augment salary payment to local government workers.”
On how a total of N13.6bn was used in paying salary arrears, Kolawole stated that, “the sum of N8,519,437.233.43 was paid out as salaries for September, October, November and December.
“Also, the sum of N924,676,305.24 was paid out as leave bonuses for the four months, while the sum of N2,496,605,100.64 was paid in pensions for the same period.”
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