Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, Thursday said his administration had completed the payment of N104bn bond it inherited from his predecessor, Chief Timipre Sylva.
Dickson spoke through his Commissioner for Finance; Mr. Maxwell Ebibai spoke during the state’s monthly transparency briefing for June and July, 2019 in Yenagoa.
Ebibai explained that the state government painstakingly undertook the repayment of the debt in spite of numerous financial obligations.
The commissioner who noted that the Dickson-led administration is not against deficit financing, emphasized that borrowed funds must be utilized for development purposes.
He said: “The state government has concluded the payment of bond that was taken by the previous administration.
“And as a government, our concern is that it carries the assets and liabilities of every government. We have taken on that responsibility painfully and we are done with it.
“There is nothing wrong with a government deciding to do deficit financing but what is important is what we are using it for and we have put it behind us as a state.”
Presenting the revenues and expenditures for July, Ebibai said in June, the state recorded internally generated revenue of N1.5bn as against N910m in May.
He noted that the gross income from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), stood at N11.6bn, while total FAAC deductions amounted to N1.1bn.
According to him, the statutory allocation for July was N3.4bn, derivation, N7bn, Value Added Tax, N928million and exchange gain differential of N23million.
Ebibai further explained that total funds available for spending was N13.4bn, consisting of a net FAAC inflow of N10.4bn in addition to other receipts of N3bn.
On outflows, the Finance Commissioner said government spent N2.4bn on bank loans, civil servants and political appointees salaries came up to N3.5bn, grants to higher institutions N695million among other items.