Bayelsa Government Restates Commitment to 50 Percent Agreement with Labour, Clears Air on FAAC receipt for July, 2016

Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (Rtd) (2nd R), making his presentation, while the Hon. Commissioner of Information & Orientation, Mr, Jonathan Obuebite (L), his counterpart of Sports Development, Mr. John Buruboyefe (2nd L), and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Treasury, Revenue & Accounts, Mr. Timipre Seipulo (R), during the Transparency Briefing for May 2016, at the Deputy Governor's Conference Room, Government House, Yenagoa.

.... We received N7.2 billion, not N19 billion – Dep. Gov

The Bayelsa State Government has restated its commitment to the agreement it reached with organized labour, saying out of the N3.5 billion funds available for spending for the month of July, 2016, it would pay the 50% of salaries to workers for the month of July.

Deputy Governor, Retired Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, who stated this during the monthly transparency briefing in Government House, Yenagoa, said the amount was realized after all the necessary deductions.

For the month of May, the Deputy Governor announced a gross inflow of N5.5 billion, comprising statutory allocation of N1.5 billion, derivation N3.3 billion, VAT N550 million, exchange differential N65 million and refunds from Rivers State on previous over payment N57 million.

John Jonah, who said IGR for April stood at N517 million, however, noted that, there were no funds from the Excess Crude account, augmentation and Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

On the deductions totaling N1.5 billion, Rear Admiral John Jonah stated that, there was a reduction on the refunds for the over payments on derivation indices, following the appeal made by the state government.

According to him, a breakdown on the deductions, included bond N1.2 billion, foreign loans N21 million, commercial agricultural loans 1 and 11 amounting to N162.3 million and final repayment to Akwa Ibom State on the Ekanga Oil Field of N131 million.

Presenting the figures on the outflow for May, the Deputy Governor said civil servants' salaries gulped N2.08 billion, local debt servicing N863 million, recurrent expenditure N454.3 million, while capital payment stood at N980 million, thereby leaving the state with a deficit balance of N80.06 million.

Contrary to speculations, he explained that, Bayelsa received a gross inflow of N7.2 billion for the month of June as against the N19 billion being peddled, noting that, FAAC deductions totaled N2.3 billion.

According to him, the sum of N1.4 billion was spent on local debt servicing from the net inflow of N4.9 billion, leaving a balance of N3.5 billion as funds available as at the end of July, 2016.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Information and orientation, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite cautioned media practitioners to verify facts and figures, before going to the press in order to avoid misinforming the public.