Feb
14
2013
Bayelsa state Governor Hon.
Seriake Dickson on Thursday presented a bank draft of N3.9bn to Julius
Berger Plc and Rafoe Nigeria Limited to fast track the developmental
projects embarked upon by his administration in the State.
Making the presentation as part of activities marking his one year
in office, Hon. Dickson said the amount paid was part of savings from
the 17.22 bn released from the state monthly savings.
Calling on the affected companies to expedite action on the
completion of the various projects they are handling including two
flyovers at the NNPC mega station area and Tombia-Edepie roundabout, the
Governor said they would be held liable if the projects are delayed.
According to him, the timeline
for the completion of the over head bridges is 24 months, while the
expansion of Onopa section of the Sir Lambert Eradiri road and the
bridge linking the proposed tourism Island is 18 months.
‘We are not indebted to any
contractor, rather they are the ones owing us. That is why I am
presenting the draft in the public for the teeming Bayelsans to know and
monitor them’.
Also, the Governor has
expressed concern over the payment of N4.104bn monthly wage to public
and political office holders, expressing its readiness to work in
collaboration with the members of the newly inaugurated Bayelsa
Development and Investment Corporation, (BDIC) to ensure reduction in
the State’s recurrent expenditure.
In his financial breakdown at
the January monthly transparency briefing held on Thursday in Yenagoa,
the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson said at the end of every month,
civil servants are being paid N3.8bn as salary, while political
appointees’ salary stand at N304m.
According to him, on assumption
of office, one year ago, we inherited a wage bill of N5bn. However,
after necessary financial measures were put in place, the figure
drastically reduced to N3.8bn. We are still going to do more at ensuring
that we bring down our recurrent wage bill to the barest minimum.
We inherited a fraud infested
system. In Bayelsa state as at the time we took over, we had a total
number of 5,237 teachers and 8,000 non academic staff including cleaners
who do not go to work in the primary schools across the state. While
the government is complaining of dearth of instructors in the Education
sectors, the administrators, for their selfish reasons keep on employing
their aged relations as cleaners.
The Governor queried, “how can
non academic staff out-number teaching staff, when the state is
complaining of dearth of teachers in our primary and secondary schools.
We are still going to embark on another round of verification exercise,
to fish out the remaining ghost workers in the system. The third tier of
government is not spared either.”
Even though the claim is that non teaching staff is not earning
much but by the time you put the figure together, it becomes something
else. We cannot condone this act any longer.
Some local government
administrators are fond of recruiting their family members without
recourse to due process. This has to be stopped for the state to move
forward.
On the state financial status
at the end of January, the governor put the Gross inflow at N15.215bn,
the Federation Account Allocation Commission, (FAAC) deduction stands at
N2.385bn and the Net inflow balance is N12.829bn.
The monthly outflow as put forward by the government include; bank repayment; N1.9bn and FIRS is N200m.
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