Kogi Bleeding with very Heavy Wage Bill, Says Gov Bello

Kogi Bleeding with very Heavy Wage Bill, Says Gov Bello

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has lamented the discovery where a worker in the state is taking salaries of over 40 people while another is earning salary in four different offices in the state.

The governor who disclosed this over the weekend while speaking with journalists said the ongoing screening exercise would yield positive dividends for the state and the citizens at large when all the loopholes created by ‘greedy’ individuals must have been exposed and taken care off.

"The state is bleeding under very heavy wage bill occasioned by manipulations on the part of the civil servants which has made government to perpetually rely on borrowing to meet up with its obligations

"The ongoing screening is very important. When we came on board, the wage bill was N3 billion and a staff strength of over 39, 000

"When you move round offices, schools, and hospitals, we are aware that since 2011, there has not been any advertisement for recruitment of staff, so how can we be having this heavy wage bill monthly?" He said.

Bello further said: "I will give an example like in a situation where Kogi State College of Education (Technical), Kabba, with barely 300 students yet non-teaching staff strength is over 500.”

He said on the eve of that screening, the registrar issued out over 200 appointment letters.

According to him, what accrues to the state from the federation account monthly had dwindled to between N2 billon to N2.2 billion, adding that the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) is hovering around N400 million to N500 million monthly.

The governor explained further that when put together, all would not even be enough for salary, hence the state would have to rely on borrowing to service overhead which is not sustainable, and that is why the screening exercise is taking place.

Bello however expressed satisfaction with what has been uncovered so far from the screening exercise.

He said to ameliorate the hardship in the delay in salary payment, he has given a directive for the heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to work out the payroll for the genuine workers for payment of salaries pending the completion of the exercise.

He indicated that so far, one senatorial district has been completed, expressing the hope to complete the exercise before the month ends.

On the local government areas and the inability for workers to get 100 percent salary, he said it was not his making, adding that he granted them financial autonomy but with over bloated staff, the same problem that bedeviled the state was also affecting them.

"I gave full autonomy to the local government on assumption of office so that they can have full autonomy financially, but we will superintendent and oversight the generation of those funds and other activities.