The Abia state Commissioner of finance, Honourable Obinna Oriaku has cleared the air on the issue of the rising domestic debt stock of the state as purported by some quarters of the media.
Hon. Oriaku who made this known in a media parley with correspondents of Abia Facts insisted that contrary to what is being said by persons who see no good in the present government, the domestic debt of this state is not on the rise.
According to him “on the issue of spending bailout funds recklessly, we have the NLC which are still active, they have not countered how we disbursed the funds because they were part of the committee which was headed by the deputy governor.”
The increased value of domestic debt was that the 14.6 billion of bailout funds they are talking about was converted to debt. It wasn’t given free. As a matter of fact we pay back monthly to the tune of 200 million naira monthly. So it wasn’t given to us pro bono.”
“Outside the 14.6 billion, we were given another 10 billion naira, which was also converted to domestic debt – loans – at the Debt Management Organization (DMO).
There was also the idea of the federal government to support state governments who have their monthly federal allocations less than 500 billion, they gave to the tune of 1 billion naira and at a point 700 million, these are also debts that are to be repaid. The totality of all these came to 15.6 billion and it was also converted to debt as well.”
So if our domestic debt grew it means that the debt of the entire federation grew as well. So why should we shy away from these loans that were priced at 8 per cent and can be spread to over 20 years? These were lifelines we could not afford to lose.”
On the issue of non-payment of salaries and pension, Hon. Oriaku countered that notion by insisting that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies are up to date with salary payments, however, few parastatals are not meeting up due to their poor revenue generation.
The commissioner assured the people that despite the high bill of pensions of over 300 million the government has to pay monthly, the governor is making concerted efforts, and that the contributory pension scheme which has been legislated by the State House of Assembly will soon kick off for those still with many years in service.
“We have also cut down the cost of governance. We have trimmed down our expenses to ensure that funds are channeled in the right direction to ensure the smooth running of the state amidst the drop in revenue” he said.