Date: 2015-10-21

The Kwara State Government says it has not collected any bail out fund for the payment of arrears of salaries of staff of Local Government and the Teachers of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) from the Federal Government. It said rather, the N4.32bn loan it secured from the Central Bank of Nigeria bail out fund was meant to off set the arrears of salaries of May and August Salaries of core civil servants in the State.

The Permanent Secretary State Ministry of Finance, Mr Benjamin Fatigun made this clarification in Ilorin while appearing before the House of Assembly committee on Finance and appropriation, who was directed by the House to request for details of the bail out since the inception of the current administration in the State

Mr Fatigun explained that though the State House of Assembly had given approval to the State Government to access the bail out fund from the Federal Government to clear the outstanding salary arrears of workers of Local Government Councils and SUBEB, the CBN he said up till this week had not released the N5bn bail out fund.

He said the State Governor Alh. AbdulFattah Ahmed had to resort into accessing a bank loan of N5.017bn last month from a commercial Bank to pay LGA staff and primary school teachers pending when the bail out fund would be released by the CBN to alleviate the suffering of the affected workers especially during the sallah festival.

Speaking on while Staff of Tertiary institutions and government owned parastatals were not paid,the State Accountant General Alh. Suleiman Ishola disclosed that his office included the proposals of the tertiary institutions, parastatals and pensioners in the bail out fund for payment of State workers, but said it was the CBN that removed them from the bail out loan pointing out that there was no way the State Government could deviate from the guidelines of the CBN as it requested for payment schedules of the State workers before the fund of #4.32bn could be accessed by the State Government.

The State Accountant General who gave a break down of how the N4.32bn bail out fund was used to pay State civil servants added that, tertiary institutions and Government owned parastatals were only being given subvention by the State Government but blamed its inability to pay the subvention for few months due to dwindling allocation from the federation Account.

Alhaji Ishola however disclosed that the State Government was not owing any core civil servant salary arrears as all the outstanding salary arrears had been paid to the civil servants in the state.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance while answering questions from the law makers however. attributed the delay in the payment of September salary to some category of workers in the State to non release of the bail out fund and disclosed that the State Government had set up a Committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government to look into how to address the problem of salary arrears of workers of tertiary institutions and parastatals in the State He assured that it would be resolved soonest.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation Alhaji Mashood Bakare who explained that the nation's Constitution empowers the legislature to oversight into the finances of the State Government, promised to regularly invite the State Government officials to make clarification on the finances of the State Government to ensure transparency, prudency and accountability in governance.

Meanwhile, the State House of Assembly has given the State Government the go-ahead to access a N5bn CBN, ECA secured concessionary loan from Sterling Bank to clear the salary arrears of staff of tertiary institutions, parastatals and embark on developmental projects in the State to make governance meaningful to the people of the State.

This followed a message from the State Governor Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed read by the Speaker Dr. Ali Ahmad at the floor of the House on Tuesday.