The Benue state government has alleged that Governor Hyacinth Alia inherited over 600 banks accounts operated by the immediate past administration.
The state commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning, Michael Oglegba, disclosed this on Thursday, October 19, when the state Correspondents’ Chapel members paid him a courtesy call in Makurdi.
Oglegba said that Governor Alia had every justifiable reason to immediately freeze all government accounts after taking over because he needed to understand what was on ground.
He said another reason was that they were shown only 25 government accounts operated by the State Government adding that information at the Nigerian Inter Bank System however showed that the State had over 600 accounts.
He said: “When we came in, we asked for the accounts and bank statements and we were presented with about 25 bank accounts. A causal look at the Nigerian Inter Bank System showed that Benue Government has more than 600 accounts.
So the governor needed to freeze those accounts to know exactly what was happening.”
Oglegba also said that the State wage bill has drastically reduced following the ongoing audits adding that the process was still ongoing and new figures would be announced when completed.
On the State debts profile, he said the state government was owning over N359bn adding that the debts included that of the Local Government Areas.
He explained that the state government was owning in excess N200bn adding that the remaining over N150bn were LGAs debts.
He added: he debts own by the State itself was in excess of N200bn. This includes local and foreign debts. However, the LGAs also have their own debts, unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities and local contractors that made up the other N150bn.
“So the Alia administration has no reason to lie about the State debts. We will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we say we own monies that we do not own. When we need loans for example who will give us?.”
The commissioner further disclosed that the handing over notes from the immediate past administration indicated that there were 19,000 pupils and 16,000 teacher but physically they do not exist.
He said that by this figures it was clear that it was one pupil to one teacher.
Oglegba said the Alia administration has done so much within its five months in office without any borrowing.
He said there were ongoing construction of 16 township roads within the State Capital, lightening of Streets, rehabilitation and remodeling of State Assembly Complex, renovation of State Secretariat among others.
He said the State Government has also paid five months salaries in the last four months.
He said all contractors handling government projects in the State were also paid without collecting any loan.
He also urged the correspondents members to always be objective and balance all reports adding that the government needed them to succeed.
Earlier, Chairman of Correspondents’ Chapel, Mr Emmanuel Antswen said they came to partner with the commissioner to strengthen their working relationship.
Antswen assured that the chapel members would continue to support and promote Government policies as they always do.
