Bayelsa State Government has stated that it has not obtained any foreign loan to finance any of its development projects and programmes since its inception in 2012.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja recently upheld the July 26 verdict of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the bona-fide winner of the gubernatorial contest.
Deputy governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha Jonah (retd), made the disclosure at the weekend, in Yenagoa, while presenting the financial statements of the state for the months of July and August, 2016.
He said that the government made attempts to secure a foreign loan to fund the Maritime Academy facility at Okpoama in Brass Local Government Area of the state, but could not secure same as the Federal Government could not guarantee the deal, Vanguard reports.
He explained that the deductions being made by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, were in respect of foreign loans incurred by previous administrations, but inherited by the present government.
For the month of August, Jonah announced a gross inflow of N8. 7 billion, comprising, derivation of N2.8 billion, statutory allocation of N1.5 billion, budget support of N1.3 billion and exchange differential of N1.4 billion.
On FAAC deductions totaling N2.3 billion, he said that the bond gulped N1.2 billion, restructured commercial bank loan accounted for N741 million, commercial agriculture loan schemes One and Two, amounting to about N161 million, Excess Crude Account loan N126 million and foreign loan N21 million.
Jonah put the total funds available for spending comprising a net inflow of N6.7 billion and IGR of N560 million for the month of July, stood at N7.02 billion.
He declared a deficit balance of N1.9 billion adding that N1.4 billion was spent on bank loans, civil servants’ salaries N2.1 billion, capital payment of N3.2 billion, recurrent payment N1.4 billion, while that of political appointees came up to N472 million, thereby bringing the total outflows to N8.9 billion.
Meanwhile, the state insists it does not have the capacity to pay civil servants because of dwindling revenue.
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