Governors have asked the federal government for
a bailout in the form of budget support.
According to Dave Umahi, governor of Ebonyi state,
who disclosed this to reporters at the end of the
national economic council (NEC) meeting presided
over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the request is
meant to assist governors offset staff salary arrears.
He said most of the governors persuaded Kemi
Adoesun, minister of finance, to find ways of
sustaining the provision of budget support to the
states.
Umahi said such support is needed, “especially when
the amount that accrues to the states from the
federation account is less than N600 billion”.
He said, however, none of the states, was qualified for
the special intervention funds since N630billion was
allocated to states from the federation account in
September.
“We came to the understanding that every month, if
the total shareable revenue in the federation account is
less than N600billion, the minister of finance will give
each state budget support,” Umahi said.
“We concluded that in the last 12 months and that
continued for the second year, states have done very
well, some states have been able to pay their
accumulated salary debts and then also increased
their commitment to infrastructure and generation of
revenue.
“However, from July, that was not paid and in the
month of August, I think about seven states were paid
because according to the minister, other states did not
comply with the set down rules, the most outstanding
of that was the non-remittance of VAT from the states.
“So those seven states have been paid but more
states have complied but we requested that those
states that have complied should be paid.”
The request is coming at a time the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has accused
some governors of mismanaging previous bailout
funds.
Only on Thursday did officials of the anti-graft
agencies arrest two top officials of the Ekiti state
government over alleged misappropriation of bailout
funds.
TheCable
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