Our attention has been drawn to the speech made by the
Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu on the state of finances inherited
on February 24, 2017. We are concerned by the figures in the speech and feel
obliged to put the records straight.
For the avoidance of any doubt, our administration left
about N20Billion in the coffers of the State at its exit on February 2017.
This include: N7.37.Billion in the Current Account;
N7.53Billion asmFixed Deposit; N1.2Billion in the MDG Account; $346,000 and 443,000Euro
in the Domiciliary Account, including the N825million Sure-P fund at the Local
Government Account!
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
8 years! Also, the External debt stock as at February 2017 was US49,958,268.49,
which (if translated at 1 US $ = N305) is N15.23billion. All of these external
debt stock was inherited from previous administrations. Again, we did not
contract any external loan for all of our 8 years! Well aware of the fact that
government is a continuum, we continued to service the debts, some of which
spanned over twenty 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 N4.13billion, CBN budget
support N7.5billion and Ondo State 7-Year bond of N17.6billion. Of all the above listed indebtedness, only
the Ondo State 7-Year Bond was directly incurred by our government to build
major infrastructure across the State.
Yes, we experienced the sad reality of salaries arrears
like almost all the States of the federation. That is why unpaid salaries for
the period August 2016 to Jan 2017 was
N32.40billion, with N20.93 billion owed State Government Workers and N11.469billion
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 N4.8billion was said to be owed by
the State Government and N25.237billion by the local governments. We wonder where
these figures came from. At inception, our administration paid N1.5billion 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 N32.40billion 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.
On yet another point raised in the speech, we are
interested in knowing what N39.740 billion, said to be contractors liability
means, if outstanding requests at the Accountant Generals office is N5.45billion.
We assume this may represent contracts awarded by previous governments which
were yet to be completely executed since no clear information was offered in
the speech on this figure.
What we know is that if this were so, such figures can
not be considered as debts until such contracts are executed at specified
milestones, stages before which payments are not due. There can only be debts
upon performance. What can be considered a debt, in all good conscience, are
the outstanding requests at the Accountant Generals Office.
We urge the government and interested citizens of our
state to avail themselves of the true state of our indebtedness from the Debt Management
Office and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (NEITI). The reports are clear and unambiguous
about the fact that Ondo State remained the least borrowed of the Six South Western
States and of the 9 Oil Producing States as at our administrations exit in
February, 2017. This, in all modesty, must say a lot about our debt management
record.
We have a duty to set the records straight for posterity.
And this we have done with no malice and or ill-feelings.
Signed
Hon. Kayode Akinmade
Former Commissioner of Information