Bayelsa declares N1.27 billion deficit balance
Felix Okoye
Bayelsa State Government has declared a deficit balance of N1.27bn as funds available after meeting its financial obligations amounting to N6.9 billion for the month of October, 2015.
The State Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (red), revealed this during the monthly transparency briefing in Yenagoa.
According to him, the state received a gross in flow of N6.5 billion out of which a total of N2.2 billion was deducted as Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) deductions.
On the inflow, he announced the statutory allocation from FAAC as N1.8 billion, derivation N4 billion, value added tax N512 million, exchange differentials of N115 million, while internally generated revenue for the month of September stood at N522 million
While giving a breakdown of the FAAC deductions, Jonah said the state spent N1.2 billion as bond repayment, while foreign loans inherited from the previous administration gulped N18 million.
Similarly, he said, Commercial Agricultural loan scheme amounted to N66.7 billion.
He also explained that the re-structured commercial bank loan was allotted N741 million, which he noted, was the first installment out of 120, while refund of arrears of derivation revenue to Akwa Ibom’s Ekanga oil field was put at N131 million.
On the outflows, the Deputy governor stated that, a total of N6.09 billion was spent in the month of October, comprising bank loan repayments of N1 billion, salaries of civil servants, N3.6 billion, while that of political appointees stood at N515 million.
Also, pension arrears for the month of August, this year according to him stood at N459 million.
In his contribution, the State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Duate Iyabi, stressed that, the deficit was sourced from the financial sector, to enable the state government meet its salary and other obligations.
Also speaking, Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Barr. Esueme Dan-Kikile, said government has consistently kept faith with its implementation of transparency and accountability policy, since its inception.
He used the occasion to commended media practitioners in the state for partnering with the state government in its development efforts and urged them to sustain the tempo by being professional in their reportage, especially as the INEC conducts the last lap of the governorship election in the state.