*Says state borrowing to meet obligations

By  Boluwaji Obahopo

LOKOJA—GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, weekend said the state had been bleeding under heavy wage bill occasioned by alleged manipulations by civil servants forcing the government to perpetually rely on borrowing to meet up with its obligations.

Yahaya Bello

The governor said the ongoing screening exercise would yield positive dividends for the state and the citizens at large when all the loopholes created by greedy individuals must have been exposed and blocked.

Bello who spoke during the naming ceremony of his twins, said: “The issue of screening that is ongoing is very important. When we came on board the wage bill was N3 billion and a staff strength of over 39,000.

When you move round the state, you will not see offices, schools or the hospitals and we are aware that since 2011 there has not been any advertisement for recruitment of staff. So, how can we be having this heavy wage bill monthly?”

Bello who said what accrued to the state from the federation account monthly had dwindled from N2.2 billion to N2 billion, noted that the state Internally Generated Revenue, IGR was hovering around N400 million and N500 million monthly.

According to him, putting the two together would still not enough be for salary.

He said: “The state would have to rely on borrowing to service overhead which is not sustainable. This development necessitated the screening exercise.”

The governor, however, expressed satisfaction with what had been uncovered so far from the screening.

According to him: “I will give an example, like in a situation where Kogi State College of Education (Technical) with barely 300 students and yet non- teaching staff strength is over 500. Do you know that on the eve of that screening, the registrar issued out over 200 appointment letters. In another discoveries, a staff is earning salary in four offices and another staff taking salaries of over 40 persons.”