The Nasarawa State Government has said
that the N1.3bn received from the Federal Government as a loan is meant
for capital projects and not for the payment of workers’ salaries.
It would be recalled that last week
Friday, the Federal Government released the sum of N50bn to the 35
states of the federation, excluding the Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja, out of which each state got N1.3bn.
The state Accountant General, Mr. Mohammed Musa Dar’dau, in an interview with The PUNCH in
his office in Lafia on Wednesday, confirmed that the state had received
its share (of the N1.3bn). He however said that the state government
had not in any way violated the Minimum Wage Act.
According to him, the N1.3bn is not
meant for the augmentation or payment of salaries of workers in the
state. He said the first table of the N18, 000 minimum wage was wrongly
implemented and the state government could not meet up because of the
dwindling in the economy of the state.
He said, “The matter is, as the name
implies; it is to support budget implementation. This loan is
specifically designed for capital expenditures. So, I believed that the
state government is doing its best, trying to analyse and come up with a
plan on how this money is going to be spent. That is the situation for
now.
“The N1.3bn is meant for capital
expenditures which comprises of any activity that is capital in nature
in the state. It is not always ideal financially for a state government
or any organisation, particularly government, to access a loan of this
magnitude and start recurrent expenditures.”
“It is not the best practice for a state
government to borrow and start settling the recurrent expenditures,
like the travels of the governor, my DTA and purchases of stationeries
or probably payment of salaries or allowances.”
On why the three tertiary’s institutions
in the state including the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, the
College of Education and the College of Agriculture, and health workers
were not affected by the 50 per cent salary deduction by the state
government, he said, “Initially when the table came out, they were
affected. But when we realised that they were not supposed to be
affected because the only organ or sections of the people that were
supposed to be affected were those that had been enjoying the N18,000
minimum wage.”
He said that the three tertiary
institutions and the health workers, who were not beneficiaries of the
N18,000 minimum wage, were refunded back their money, adding that
everybody had already collected his or her own balance.
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