State Governors have asked the
Federal Government for a bailout, in the form of budget support.
Ebonyi state Governor, Dave
Umahi, disclosed this to reporters on Thursday at the end of the National
Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Umahi said the request is meant
to assist Governors offset staff salary arrears.
The Governor also revealed that
most of the Governors persuaded Finance Minister, Kemi Adoesun, to find ways of
sustaining the provision of budget support to the states.
Umahi said such support is
needed, “especially when the amount that accrues to the states from the
federation account is less than N600 billion”.
“We came to the understanding
that every month, if the total shareable revenue in the federation account is
less than N600billion, the minister of finance will give each state budget
support.
“We concluded that in the last 12
months and that continued for the second year. States have done very well; some
states have been able to pay their accumulated salary debts and then also
increased their commitment to infrastructure and generation of revenue.
“However, from July, that was not
paid and in the month of August, I think about seven states were paid because
according to the minister, other states did not comply with the set down rules,
the most outstanding of that was the non-remittance of VAT from the states.
“So those seven states have been
paid but more states have complied but we requested that those states that have
complied should be paid.”
The request comes at a time the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused some Governors of mismanaging
previous bailout funds.
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These Governors should start looking inwards to find a better way to increase their IGRs and review the number of civil servant through job performance evaluation . From experience, the civil servant spend most time doing things that are very unproductive during office hours, yet, the bail out is used for their salaries.
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