PARIS CLUB REFUND: Osun exceeds set condition, releases over 80% to workers, pensioners

The Osun State Government has released a breakdown of how it spent its share of N6.314b from the recently released second tranche of Paris Club Refund by the Federal Government.

From the infograph released by the government, a total sum of N5,998,493,302.05 was paid out as salaries, pensions, leave bonuses and other emoluments.

This is even higher than the recommended figures by the labour unions in the state which had met regularly with the Revenue Apportionment Committee headed by Comrade Hassan Sunmonu.

A further breakdown of the figure is as follows: N503,908,457.4 was paid as Leave Bonuses to Civil Servants, N3,768,669,258 was used to pay workers’ salaries as well as clear July and August half-salary arrears of 2015 owed senior cadre of workers in the state.

 

Furthermore, N934,841,306 was used to pay Local Government Workers, while a total sum of N791,074,280.8 went to pensioners that retired from the civil service.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2016, approved the partial refund of longstanding claims by state governments in respect of over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for external debt service between 1995 and 2002.

Read also: AGF infuriated by refusal of Customs boss Ali to obey S’Court order 4 months after

The debt service deductions were in respect of the Paris Club, London Club and Multilateral debts of the Federal and State governments, for which Nigeria reached a final agreement for debt relief with the Paris Club in October 2005.

Since the first tranche of the refund was released in November 2016, Osun specifically disbursed the payment by using all of the refund to settle workers’ arrears in the state.

By allocating over 80% of the fund to the settlement of salaries and pensions, Osun state succeeded in exceeding the set minimum condition of 50% by the finance ministry.

Many will welcome this transparency from Osun State, while they eagerly await a similar move from other states so as to be able to analyze their use of the fund.

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now