The Ogun State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon Afolabi Afuape, on Wednesday, said that the 20 local government areas in the state shared N3.4 billion as statutory allocation in the month of August.
Afuape in an interview shortly after the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting held at the Obas Complex, in Abeokuta, attended by council chairmen, representatives of traditional rulers, pensioners, said the state was left with a deficit of N578 million, to meet up with its financial obligations totalling N4.01 billion.
The commissioner explained that the deficit had hindered the local government from remitting the monthly contributory pension of N201 million cooperative and loans of N124 million, PAYE of N178 million and 5 percent bond of N121 million to cover up for the deficit.
“We are back to the same thing almost every month, we have a shortfall of N578 million. And as such, some statutory payments could not be made.
“This explains why at times we are saying we are not paying PAYE to the state, we still owing some cooperative deductions because the money is not even enough to pay all these.
“And if this (Federal allocation) is not enough to pay, there is no way any local government will be able to get any money.
“It is a very transparent exercise and if anybody has any issue over this, you are free to challenge us, we are ready to defend it and that is the position we are for September 2021.
“We are not augmenting now because the money we got from Abuja we can use it to pay statutory payments, but if we are to pay everything, the shortfall will have been N578m, but since we are not paying everything, we are dodging some payments we are already in the positive of N46 million,” he said.
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