The Kwara state government over the weekend dismissed as false and unfounded an online media report linking the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki with the salary crises in the state-owned tertiary institutions.
In a statement issued in Ilorin by the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Media and Communications, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, the Kwara State Government dissociated the Senate President from the outstanding salary arrears at the affected institutions.
It clarified that Saraki neither controls nor interferes with the management of state government funds or institutions and challenged anyone with contrary proof to publish it.
The state government blamed its inability to pay subventions to the affected tertiary institutions on the drop in monthly Federal Allocations to the state from N3.2billion to N1.8billion.
Explaining further, the statement added that N1.7billion of the amount goes into the payment of secondary school teachers, civil servants, pensions and gratuity per month, stressing that the remainder was inadequate to cover the N500million monthly subventions to parastatals, including revenue-generating tertiary institutions.
Kwara government maintained that it was forced to suspend the payment of subventions to parastatals while expecting tertiary institutions and other revenue-generating agencies to pay workers from their internally-generated revenue in view of the huge drop in monthly Federal Allocation to the state.
On the N4.3billion Federal Government bailout to the state, the statement emphasized that the money was used to clear the two months’ arrears owed state civil servants in August 2015.
It added that the Federal Government was yet to release the bailout component for the payment of subventions to the tertiary institutions and other parastatals in the state.
The state government also denied cutting salaries at the colleges of education by 30 per cent. It clarified that the state government was financially constrained to implement only 70 per cent of the Consolidated Tertiary Education and Institution Salary Structure, a nationally agreed salary structure for tertiary institutions which is, however, subject to states’ capacity to pay.
The statement added that despite its lean finances, the government had increased subventions to tertiary institutions in the state thrice in the last four years but was currently unable to ensure regular payment due to the huge drop in monthly federal allocation to the state.
While urging people to stop playing politics with issues affecting the lives of people and the security of the state, the government stressed that making false claims that were capable of inciting people and creating crises was not only unpatriotic but ungodly.
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