Bayelsa Govt Faces Lean Finances?

The Bayelsa State Government’s financial empire seems to have crumbled as only N2billion was declared as the total amount available in its coffers after deduction of recurrent and capital expenditures spanning three months.
This, according to analysts, is a great departure from the robust financial state of government which Governor Seriake Dickson claimed when he assumed office.
In the first transparency press briefing when he assumed office two years ago, the governor declared that “money is not our problem but how to spend it. We are going to turn the state into a huge construction sites.”
But today, the story is different, judging from the contents of last Monday’s monthly transparency initiative briefing for the months of April, May and June, 2014.
The governor was represented at the briefing by his Deputy, Admiral Gboribibiogha John Jonah (rtd).
Jonah said, the declaration of the state’s monthly income and expenditure was, though a policy of the present administration on transparency, it is coming at a time the state is witnessing continuous dwindling of Federal Allocation, payment of debts incurred by previous governments and servicing of loans from banks.
While making a breakdown of the financial receipts and expenditures for the three months under review, Jonah said that, as at the end of April, 2014, the state posted a balance of N14.87billion including balance brought forward from the month of March, 2014, which stood at N7.263billion.
Jonah, who did not make any mention of savings for three months, admitted that the said savings had been tempered with to meet up other exigencies, saying that at the end of May, the state had a balance of N14.621billion, including N8.938billion brought forward from the month April, 2014.
Reiterating his administration’s commitment to probity and accountability, the governor disclosed that at the end of June, the state posted N2billion after necessary deductions, which include bank loan re-payments and servicing, recurrent and capital expenditures.
Describing the economy of the state as stable, compared to other states in the country, the governor said, his administration is living up to its billings, which include provision of infrastructure, human capacity building and improving the state’s internally generated revenue.
He added that Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and funds from other sources, including Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the month of April stood at N18, 472,594,241.30k.
Dickson, who noted that salaries for civil servants over the past three months amounted for over N11.66billion, said that the allowances of political appointees stood at N1.327billion, while payment of the N18,000 minimum wage arrears for civil servants gulped N377.77million.
According to him, statutory allocations for the three months were over N12.45billion, adding that there was no fund from the excess crude account and augmentation during the period.
On derivation from the Federation Account, Dickson explained that N32.569billion was received while government got N1.851billion as proceeds from value added tax for the three months under review.