Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has disclosed that his administration left N20Billion in the coffers of the State at its exit in February 2017.
Former Commissioner for Information, Mr Kayode Qkinmade in a statement issued yesterday explained that Mimiko’s administration left N7.37 billion in the Current Account; N7.53 billion as fixed deposit; N1.2 billion in the MDG Account; $346,000 and 443,000 Euro in the domiciliary account, including the N825million Sure-P fund at the Local Government Account.
He said ‘the above amount, most of which came late into our tenure was to be used to offset a chunk of owed salaries before the then Accountant General made a curious disappearance.
‘On figures listed as External Debt, it is necessary to State the following: our administration did not incur any foreign debt in all its eight years. Also, the external debt stock as at February 2017 was US49,958,268.49, which (if translated at 1 US $ = N305) is N15.23 billion. All of these external debt stock was inherited from previous administrations.
‘Again, we did not contract any external loan for all of our eight years. Well aware of the fact that government is a continuum, we continued to service the debts, some of which spanned over 20 years.
‘Internal debt profile, we aver, stood at N53.159 billion comprising mainly of salary bail out loan of N13.76billion, Excess Crude Account loan N9.79 billion, CBN restructuring FGN Bond N4.13 billion, CBN budget support N7.5 billion and Ondo State 7-Year bond of N17.6 billion.
‘Of all the above listed indebtedness, only the Ondo State seven year bond was directly incurred by our government to build major infrastructure across the State.
‘Yes, we experienced the sad reality of salary arrears like almost all the States of the federation. That is why unpaid salaries for the period August 2016 to Jan 2017 was N32.40 billion, with N20.93 billion owed State Government workers and N11.469 billion owed Local Government workers, including political appointees.
‘Even at that, it must also be clear that we left office on the 24th February, 2017 while Federal Allocation for February 2017 salaries was received by the incumbent Government on the 28th of February, 2017. We could not have paid February salaries when we did not receive February allocation before exit.
‘On pensions, a sum of N4.8 billion was said to be owed by the State Government and N25.237 billion by the local governments. We wonder where these figures came from. At inception, our administration paid N1.5 billion out of outstanding pensions and gratuities. All the years of our administration, monthly obligations to pensioners were considered and paid as part of salaries! The N32.40 billion salary areas is therefore inclusive of obligations to pensioners, except gratuity, which is owed both at the State and Local Government levels.
‘While we note that gratuities are outstanding, we State for the benefit of all, that this is one sad development that was not peculiar to Ondo State alone. Almost all States of the federation have defaulted on gratuities in the last ten years or more,’ he added.