The Ekiti State Government has clarified its level of obligation to civil servants in the state, saying only their May salary is outstanding.
Reacting to reports in a section of the media that workers in the state were being owed three months salaries, the Special Assistant to Governor Ayo Fayose on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said; “As at today, the only salary yet to be paid by the Fayose-led administration is that of May 2015”.
However, it was learnt that not all civil servants on the state’s payroll have received their April salary, despite being cleared during the staff verification exercise.
Olayinka said the immediate past All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Dr Kayode Fayemi, refused to pay August and September, 2014 salaries, despite receiving federal allocation for the months of August and September.
“The Fayose-led government has already cleared the August 2014 salary which was left unpaid by the APC government. That of September will be paid as soon as there is improvement in the state finances”, Olayinka said.
On the May salary being owed, the media aide said; “Allocation for May that was received was not enough to pay salary, leaving the government with the option of waiting for June allocation that is expected to be released next week and the moment that is done, workers will get their May salary.
“It is also important to point out that apart from the shortfall in the allocation coming to the state from the federation account; the gross mismanagement of the state finances by the immediate past APC government is responsible for the present parlous state of the state finances. At the time we assumed office, unpaid bank loan was N15, 831,613,425.62 while outstanding payment from the N25 billion bond was N26, 749,796,784.75, making N42.6 billion debt from bank loans and bond alone! N21, 286,126,749 was outstanding payment to road contractors while N5,
137,888,224.37 was outstanding emoluments to State Public Servants.
“The state was able to meet up with payment of salary because of the six months moratorium gotten from financial institutions from which the immediate past government obtained loans. Painfully, these credit facilities were used to execute income-generating projects and the repercussion of the financial recklessness of the past administration is the parlous economic situation of the state now.
“However, with the cooperation of the people, especially the workers, the government will continue to strive to rescue the state from the financial predicament that it was plunged into by the immediate past government”, he said.