4 days to election, Governor Dickson ‘under pressure to pay salaries’

The Bayelsa state government is yet to pay workers’ salaries for November, and being the second day of the month, it shouldn’t be much of a problem yet.

But it is a big problem, a major headache for the state government- owing to the fact that it’s four days to the governorship election in the state.

Governor Seriake Dickson is contesting for re-election on Saturday, December 5, primarily against a former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress.

The non-payment of Salaries by election-day will inadvertently affect the voting pattern of Bayelsans.

Hence, the state government has explained to Bayelsans that the delay in the sharing of monthly allocation to states by the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), is responsible for the delayed salary payment.

Commissioner for Finance, Duate Iyabi, also blamed the salary delay on the fall in the sales of crude oil in the international market and the drastic fall in the state allocation accruing from FAAC.

“We are under tremendous pressure to pay salaries. Last month, the sum of N5.8bn we received helped us to pay workers’ salaries but due to the delay being experienced, we have to look for other alternative sources to pay the workers’ salaries.

“Our situation is not helped by the inability of the NNPC to sell crude. The scenario is frightening and our efforts to generate internally generated revenue are important to sustain the frequent payment of salaries.

“As you can see from the figures, it is a marked difference from what we used to get in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Our derivation has dropped. We used to get up to N15bn and N16bn from derivation but as I talk to you today, for the month of September, we got N4.7bn.

The bulk of our revenue is derived from derivation funds. With that fund vanishing, we are now under tremendous threat to increase our revenue profile from other sources.”

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