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Kogi Will Not To Borrow To Pay Salaries – Commissioner

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Federal Ministry Of Finance Will Not Grant The State Loans For Payment Of Salary

The state civil servants in Kogi State have been told by Asiru Idris, the Commissioner of Finance in State, not to expect the administration of Yahaya Bello to borrow money from any source to settle their salaries and entitlement.

He stated that the government is saving over N300 million monthly from payment of staff salaries as a result of the fall out of the staff verification exercise.

The statement was made by Idris in Lokoja during a media parley organised by the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.

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The commissioner said as much as the state government would have loved to seek for help to settle the unpaid salary in the state, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office (DMO) would not approve loans for payment of salaries.

He added that whenever a state government seeks approval from the Federal Government to secure loans, the new fiscal policy of the present administration will scrutinize it and when discovered to be for salary, it would be blocked.

Idris said in the effort of the state government to instill financial discipline, it has established five thematic areas of public finance, transparency and accountability, increasing revenue generation, value for money and debt sustainability that has provided value added to projects executed across the state.

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Asiru explained that the government had established T Unit in the Ministry of Finance with membership from the Procurement Department, Auditor General office, and Budget Office, who are responsible for the approval for the government financial requests.

While commending the government for the success of the staff verification, he said it has been able to block leakages even as the electronic register deployed to monitor staff movement has improved productivity of civil servants.

The Commissioner of Finance disclosed further that the purported N102.4bn debt profile of the state was the combination of N55bn liabilities of the past administrations and the N49.9bn borrowed by the present administration.

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He, however stated that in as much the government can not deal without debts the state government would be concerned about debts that deal with the citizenry.