Ekiti State government has lamented the failure of the federal government in paying the budget support fund.
It said the development had affected the state in paying workers salaries.
The Head of Service, Mr Olugbenga Faseluka during an interactive meeting with representatives of civil servants’ unions in Ekiti State disclosed that out of the 35 states that subscribed for the loan, only Ekiti was left out in the January payment of the fund.
He however disclosed that with Ekiti wage bill put at 2.3billion, it had been difficult to bridge the gap in payment of workers salary due to the low allocation being received monthly.
“We don’t know why the budget support fund was not released. Information we have is that only Ekiti State was left out from the 35 states that subscribed to the loan, excluding Lagos State. All other states have been paid”, he said.
Faseluka confirmed that the money was paid and later withdrawn.
He said a letter had been sent to the office of the accountant general of the federation to complain over the non-payment of the loan and that the state was still expecting response.
Mrs Owolabi, the Accountant general of Ekiti State said before the present government came into power, the internally generated revenue, IGR in the state was put at 250m to 280million naira. He said ekiti can now boost of an IGR of 400million monthly.
She said the state received a total of one billion, five hundred and fourty-eight million, (N1,548billion) as allocation for the month of January.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry of finance, Mr Niran Owoseni disclosed that the amount Ekiti State received was far below what the government used in the payment of salaries.
He said government has been using the budget support fund in addition to the monthly allocation to run the state.
He however lamented that as at yesterday the loan has not been paid by the federal government. This he said had delayed in the payment of salaries of workers in the state for the month of September.
Reacting to the development the NLC Vice Chairman in Ekiti State, Adeniyi Olugbenga said there was no reason for Ekiti State to be denied of the benefit among other states of the federation.
He however suggested that in the interim an alternative source of generating revenue, such as cultivation of crops that could generate money should be embarked upon so as to guard against dependency on Federal Government fund.
Olugbenga said Ekiti state needed to cry out so that those concerned can intervene in the situation.
The chairman of Trade Union Congress, TUC, in Ekiti State, Comrade Adesoye Adedayo said the money was credited to all the states that applied for it but Ekiti’s money was later withdrawn.
“Till this moment we don’t know why the Federal ggoverment did that. We don’t believe that Ekiti State government is not ready or refused to pay salary. The money was credited to all states that subscribed for the loan but only Ekiti was later withdrawn”, he said.
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