We inherited a heavily indebted state – Amosun

[MrVan]

Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has lamented the heavy debt burden inherited by his administration, including backlog of workers' salaries, pensions and gratuities.

The governor disclosed this yesterday while receiving the executive members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners,  Ogun State Council, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Governor's Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

Amosun regretted that people that had served the state meritoriously were denied their pensions and gratuities while deductions made from salaries of workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme were not remitted by the last administration.

"A responsible government should do everything possible not to owe workers. By the grace of the Almighty, we pay our workers as and when due."

We do not owe pensions and gratuities except those we inherited, and we've been paying the arrears, because we believe these people served the state," the governor said.

He explained that the situation he inherited was so bad that some local governments were also heavily indebted without being able to justify such huge debts.

"Right now, many local councils rely on the state government to pay salaries of workers," he disclosed.

He however assured the people of the state that the sound fiscal policy of his government, including prudent public finance management, was already yielding dividends.

He said his government was able to pay the June salaries even without the Federal Allocation.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners,  Ogun State Council, Chief Kessington Odukoya and the General Secretary, Comrade Bola Lawal, commended the state government's initiative in payment of pensions and gratuities, especially the 'pay as you go' retirement policy but called on the governor to fast-track the process of clearing all the arrears inherited from the last administration, set up a Pension Board, assist in building a secretariat for the union and payment of arrears of pensions and gratuities in the local councils.

 

Vanguard Nigeria

[Justin Nnamdi]

The Previous Administration should be held Accountable if indeed the state was indebted at the time Amosun started Piloting the Affairs of the State
Or What do you think Mr Van??