Governor Seriake
Dickson of Bayelsa State has ordered the arrest and prosecution of some accounts officers in the state’s public service over an attempt to defraud the state government.
Dickson, who disclosed this at his Monthly Transparency Media Briefing in Yenagoa, however, declined to give the names and number of officials involved in the aborted fraud.
He said it was unfortunate that “few misguided civil servants’’ were bent on derailing the efforts of his administration to build a better Bayelsa State.
“This morning, I have directed that some civil servants be arrested and investigation into their activities be carried out immediately. “I saw from a report brought before me how some fraudulent people are trying to beat the system by manipulating figures in our financial records. “What they record on paper is different, while the actual money they send to the banks is totally different from the figures recorded,” Dickson said.
The governor who was briefing on the state’s accounts and activities in August warned that “Bayelsa State government is not a place where people come and become millionaires overnight at the expense of the development of the state’’.
He said the state’s resources were not even enough to build roads and provide other social amenities for its people.
“As such, we will not tolerate the antics of some individuals to defraud the state,” Dickson said.
The deputy governor, retired Rear Admiral John Jonah, later disclosed the financial position of the state by giving details of the state government’s income and expenditure for August.
He said the state government received the sum of N13.69 billion as gross inflow from the Federation Account in August.
“The sum total of N2.77 billion was spent as monthly payments for the month of August, while capital payments stood at N6.987 billion,’’ Jonah said.
He also said the state realised N833 million as Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) in the same month, apart from other forms of income.
The deputy governor said, aside from other expenses, N3.96 billion was spent on paying workers’ salaries for the month under review, while political appointees’ salaries stood at N414.45 million.
“The balance in the coffers of the state government as at the end of August was N14.67 billion,’’ he said.