By SAMUEL OYADONGHA, Yenagoa
Thirty days after his inauguration, Governor Seriake Dickson says he inherited an empty treasury with a huge debt profile from the past administration.

Governor Dickson who disclosed this in Yenagoa while giving the breakdown of state allocation for the month of February promised to intimate Bayelsans on the actual debt his administration inherited whenever the Timi Alaibe led Financial Management Committee conclude its investigation and turn in its report.

His words, “It is no longer news that we inherited an empty state account with a huge and intimidating debt profile that seemed to have mortgaged the future of the state before we came to its rescue. We have set up a committee to ascertain the actual level of indebtedness which shall be made public as soon as the Committee concludes its work.”

The governor, who reiterated his commitment to briefing Bayelsans monthly, on revenues accruing to the state and expenditure said all local government chairmen have been directed to comply with this paradigm shift on the issue of transparency, probity and accountability, to reflect the new Bayelsa in line with his restoration agenda.

He said the state received a total of N15bn as federal allocation and recorded a total outflow of N9,770,423,377.29 after paying workers salary and servicing banks and other sundry expenses leaving a balance of N5,901,168,231.81.

The governor explained that he had directed the opening of two special accounts at UBA and FCMB.

The first account according to the governor is the Bayelsa State Strategic Development Project account with UBA domiciled in Yenagoa which is dedicated to funding strategic investments in infrastructural development, agriculture, tourism, education, health and security.

“Our target is to build up these reserves to enable the award of contracts in compliance with applicable statutes on fiscal responsibility which require that contractual commitments by government should have adequate funding provided,” he said.

The second account he said is the Bayelsa State Strategic Reserve & Savings Account with FCMB domiciled in Yenagoa which is a an interest yielding account dedicated to providing savings for raining day as a stabilization for the state economy in the event of any unforeseen shock adding that it has a balance of N2bn.

“The Bayelsa State Compulsory Savings Bill 2012, makes it mandatory for the state to make savings in this account. By the provisions of the proposed bill, funds in the account cannot be accessed by anybody, except for specific purposes and only with 2/3rd approval of the State House of Assembly. There is also a proposed State Reserves Funds Management Council to be composed of persons of proven integrity, which will advise government on the utilization of this fund,” he said.

Governor Dickson noted that for the month of February alone, N4.1bn was paid as salaries of civil servants which excludes about N100m outstanding claims by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to augment primary school teachers’ salaries.

“We believe that it is the right of the people of the state, to know what funds accrue to the coffers of the state and the various local government councils and how they are utilised. This is the only way to secure the trust and confidence of the people in whom sovereignty lies,” he declared.