Kwara State government says it recorded a 9.6 per cent increase in federal allocation for the month of June. The state got N1, 554, 650, 906.93 which is N136, 349, 914.54 higher than the N1.418billion it received in May.

The Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Nurudeen Demola Banu, who disclosed this in a statement yesterday, however, said that the June allocation was still lower than the N2.4billion monthly wage bill of the state. According to him, the state government got a statutory allocation of N936, 377, 868.44; VAT of N603, 942, 902.85 and exchange difference of N14, 330, 135.64, totaling N1, 554, 650, 906.93.

The Commissioner also disclosed the allocation received by the 16 local governments in the state for the month of June to include statutory allocation of N886, 061, 009.12; VAT of N342, 735, 943.98 and exchange difference of N9, 451, 695.84, totaling N1, 238, 248, 648.94.

Banu said that the June allocation for the local government councils was N90.3m higher than the N1.147b they received for the month of May. He, however, explained that the allocation was not enough to cater for the salaries of LG workers as basic education teachers and SUBEB staff alone required N1.2billion monthly.

According to him, N784, 616, 734.15 was required for other LG workers salaries monthly while N397, 188, 390.30 was needed for the payment of pensions. Banu noted that the lingering salary impasse at the third tier of government was as a result of the significant reduction in monthly federal allocation accruing to the local governments.

He, however, assured that the state government and LG administrations were making efforts to resolve the salary crises.