Kwara govt gives reason for taking FG’s N5bn bailout loan

THE Kwara State Gov­ernment yesterday stated that the N5billion Federal Government bailout loan was the cheapest and most efficient means of paying accumulated arrears of sal­aries and allowances owed to primary school teachers and other local government employees. The loan also covered arrears of pen­sions and gratuities owed to retired local government workers, some of which went back several years.

In a statement signed by Senior Special Assistant, Media and Communica­tions, Dr. Muideen Akore­de, the state government said N5billion loan, when received, would bring re­lief to local councils, their staff and retirees as federal allocations were currently inadequate to meet salary, pension and gratuity obli­gations at state and local government levels.

A breakdown of the N5billion liability showed that as at July 2015, the total salary arrears for lo­cal government workers was N2, 012, 999, 522.40, while salary arrears for pri­mary school teachers stood at N2, 143, 414, 338.55.

Total local government pension arrears stood at N523, 160, 259.38 while arrears for local govern­ment Statutory Contribu­tion to Kwara State Uni­versity (KWASU) was N70, 464, 259.89 Out­standing payments for sundry services was put at N267, 806, 538.40.

Providing further clari­fication, the state govern­ment said it was clear from the figures that the N3.6billion combined June and July allocations to the 16 local government coun­cils was inadequate to meet current and outstanding salary and pension arrears not to talk of development projects.
The state government, therefore, expressed con­fidence that the N5billion loan bailout would clear all outstanding arrears and provide the local govern­ment councils with afford­able repayments so that they would continue to meet future salary, pension and project obligations.

The statement also reit­erated that the state gov­ernment did not interfere in local government council funds as all due allocations were released after statu­tory deductions for teach­ers’ salaries, pensions and gratuities, teaching ser­vice allowance, statutory contributions to KWA­SU, training, and sundry support services. It also stressed that bank charges and loan repayments were deducted at source by banks.

The state government, therefore, commended the House of Assembly for its speedy approval of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s request to con­vert the N5billion arrears into a Federal Government bailout loan and expressed the optimism that the inter­vention would make salary and pension arrears at lo­cal councils an issue of the past.