Akeredolu, Mimiko disagree over Ondo profile

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state, said his administration inherited a whooping debt of N220billion from the immediate past administration informer governor Olusegun Mimiko

Akeredolu who disclosed this in Akure, Ondo state capital during the inauguration of the new alleged the administration of Mimiko of embarking on projects which had no direct impacts on the lives of the people of the state.

According to him, the debts incurred by the administration include money borrowed from both within and outside the country, including t for uncompleted projects executed by the immediate past administration.

“With a total inherited debt of over N220 billion, it should not be difficult for anyone to know that the government’s capacity for seeming elastic adjustment to cater for the people has been stretched to its limit.

“There is no gain asserting the obvious; our administration is not in any position for frivolities. All of us must gird our loins for the great task ahead. The picture is not good. Therefore, all acts with the potential of pushing us deeper into economic crisis must be jettisoned. We earnestly promise to provide the needed leadership.”

The governor while giving the breakdown of the debt profile of the  said, “the breakdown of this highly disturbing debt profile is as follows:
Internal debt: N53billion, external debt: N17billion, unpaid salaries and allowances from August to December 2016, N17billion, unpaid salaries and allowances, January to February, 2017, N6billion while Pension Liabilities remained N4.8b,
Ondo State Gratuity: N15,04billion
unpaid local government salaries and allowances August to December 2016, N9,32billion
unpaid local government salaries and allowances from (January to February 2017, is N5,19billion.

Others include local government Pension liabilities: N25, 23 billion
Local government gratuities liability: N20,965billion, Contractors’ liabilities: N39,740,423,934.76
Outstanding payment requests in the Office of the Accountant-General without cash backing: N5,451,352,494.25

However, the immediate past government faulted the state governor’s claim saying Mimiko’s administration left N20Billion in the coffers of the State in February this year.

Speaking on behalf of the immediate past administration, the former commissioner for Information, Hon Kayode Akinmade, said “We are concerned by the figures in the speech and feel obliged to put the records straight.
For the avoidance of any doubt, our administration left about N20billion in the coffers of the state at its exit on February 2017.”

Akinmade said the money included
N7.37.Billion in the Current Account; N7.53Billion as
Fixed Deposit; N1.2Billion in the MDG Account; $346,000 and
443,000Euro in the Domiciliary Account, including the N825million
Sure-P fund at the Local Government Account!

He said “the above amount, most of which came late into our tenure was to be used to offset a chunk of owed salaries before the then Accountant General made a curious disappearance.

“On figures listed as external debt, it is necessary to state the following. Our administration did not incur any foreign debt in all its eight years,  while the external debt stock as at February 2017 was US49,958,268.49, which (if translated at 1 US $ = N305) is N15.23billion. All of these external debt stock was inherited from previous administrations.

“Again, we did not contract any external loan for all of our eight years, because we are aware of the fact that government is a continuum, we continued to service the debts, some of which spanned over twenty years.”

Akinmade said the Internal debt profile of the state stood at N53.159 billion which comprised of salary bail out loan of N13.76billion, Excess Crude Account loan N9.79 billion, CBN restructuring FGN Bond of N4.13billion, CBN budget support N7.5billion and Ondo State seven -year bond of N17.6billion.

“Of all the above listed indebtedness, only the Ondo State seven -year bond was directly incurred by our government to build major infrastructure across the State.” Akinmade said

He however confirmed that the administration owed salaries arrears of N32.40billion which was between August 2016 to January 2017 with the state government owing local government workers and political appointees around N11.469billion.