The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, faulted the state government on the state’s debt profile, describing the claims of the state government over the debt left behind by PDP government in the state as fictitious.
The PDP maintained that the state Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Mr Donald Ojogo, erred with the figure he claimed the PDP left behind, saying it was a clear misrepresentation of facts and an attempt to misinform citizens and cast the PDP in bad lights.
Ojogo has said on Monday that the state government has reduced the debt inherited from the immediate past administration of the PDP by over 50 Per cent.
Reacting to the development, the PDP Director of Media and Publicity, Mr Zadock Akintoye, denied that the party owed N230b as debt for the present administration in the state.
According to Akintoye, who said the former Information Commissioner in the state, Mr Kayode Akin made, had earlier set the record straight on the debt profile and expressed dismay over the figure quoted by Ojogo.
Akintoye said “In responding to this falsehood, we here again put forward the response of the former Commissioner for Information, Hon. Kayode Akinmade to the claims of the APC-led Ondo State Government and advise citizens to be wary of believing the falsehood being peddled by this government.
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“It is on record that the Ondo State government has not made public the accounts of the state within the last three years even amidst widespread allegations of misappropriation of local government funds, cronyism, nepotism, flagrant abuse of due process and capital flight occasioned by favouritism.
“The allegations levelled against this government that members of the governors immediate family are directly in charge of revenue collection, project execution and award have not been replied to, even as it has been established that a whopping 800 million naira is being deducted monthly as security vote.
“We would advise the incumbent party to focus on delivering on good governance and repairing its battered image rather than seeking to find excuses for its incompetence.”
Clearing the air on the position of finances inherited by the Akeredolu led government on February 24, 2017, Akinmade explained that “for the avoidance of any doubt, our administration left about N20Billion in the coffers of the State at its exit on February 2017.
“This includes 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!
“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”
He stressed further that “On figures listed as External Debt, it is necessary to state the following. Our administration did not incur any foreign debt in all its 8 years! Also, the External debt stock as at February 2017 was US49,958,268.49, which (if translated at 1 US $ = N305) is N15.23billion.
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“All of these external debt stock was inherited from previous administrations. Again, we did not contract any external loan for all of our 8 years, We are aware of the fact that government is a continuum, we continued to service the debts, some of which spanned over twenty years.
“Internal debt profile, weaver, stood at N53.159 billion comprising mainly of salary bailout loan of N13.76billion, Excess Crude Account loan N9.79 billion, CBN restructuring FGN Bond N4.13billion, CBN budget support N7.5billion and Ondo State 7-Year bond of N17.6billion.
“Of all the above-listed indebtedness, only the Ondo State 7-Year Bond was directly incurred by our government to build major infrastructure across the State.
“Yes, we experienced the sad reality of salaries arrears like almost all the States of the federation. That is why unpaid salaries for the period August 2016 to Jan 2017 was N32.40billion, with N20.93 billion owed State Government Workers and N11.469billion owed Local government workers, including political appointees.
“Even at that, it must also be clear that we left office on the 24th February 2017 while Federal Allocation for February 2017 salaries was received by the incumbent Government on the 28th of February, 2017. We could not have paid February salaries when we did not receive February allocation before exit.
“On Pensions, a sum of N4.8billion was said to be owed by the State Government and N25.237billion by the local governments. We wonder where these figures came from. At inception, our administration paid N1.5billion out of outstanding pensions and gratuities.
“All the years of our administration, monthly obligations to pensioners were considered and paid as part of salaries. The N32.40billion salary areas are therefore inclusive of obligations to pensioners, except gratuity, which is owed both at the State and Local Government levels. While we note that gratuities are outstanding, we state for the benefit of all, that this is one sad development that was not peculiar to Ondo State alone. Almost all states of the federation have defaulted on gratuities in the last ten years or more.
“On yet another point raised in the speech, we are interested in knowing what N39.740 billion, said to be contractors liability means if outstanding requests at the Accountant Generals office is N5.45billion.
“We assume this may represent contracts awarded by previous governments which were yet to be completely executed since no clear information was offered in the speech on this figure.
“What we know is that if this were so, such figures can not be considered as debts until such contracts are executed at specified milestones, stages before which payments are not due. There can only be debts upon performance. What can be considered a debt, in all good conscience, are the outstanding requests at the Accountant Generals Office?
“We urge the government and interested citizens of our state to avail themselves of the true state of our indebtedness from the Debt Management Office and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
“The reports are clear and unambiguous about the fact that Ondo State remained the least borrowed of the Six South Western States and of the 9 Oil Producing States as at our administration’s exit in February 2017. This, in all modesty, must say a lot about our debt management record.
“We have a duty to set the records straight for posterity. And this we have done with no malice and or ill-feelings”
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