Dickson releases N5.6bn for salary arrears from Paris Club refund

Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has authorised the release of N5.6 billion Paris Club Debt funds received by the state in December to pay one and a half months salary arrears owed workers during the peak of the biting economic recession in the country in 2016.

The governor had called a consultative meeting of top government officials and labour leaders and their representatives on the Paris Club funds received in the state in December, in line with the transparency policy of his administration.
A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the governor on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, stated that the state government received a total of N14.8 billion from the Federal Government.
The breakdown shows that the state received N13.5 billion, while the local government councils received N1.37bn.

Dickson explained further that the outstanding salaries arrears were a balance of half salaries he paid for seven months during the recession in 2016.
The governor appreciated the workforce for displaying understanding during the trying period of the recession in 2016, which affected the resources of the state adversely.

According to him, while most of the older states in the country have lower wage bills, the state’s wage bill was over N6bn (state and LGAs) because of the detrimental activities of some fraudulent characters.
The governor lamented that the wage bill in the state had remained high, in spite of its low Internally Generated Revenue base, which he puts at N500, 000 million per month on the average.

He added further that the recurrent burden on the state had become too high as the individual Bayelsa civil servant earns almost twice the income of their counterparts in other states of the federation. He explained that the government was making sustained efforts to also clean up the payroll mess to reduce the inflated wage bill.

The governor said that he had always taken the issue of payment of salaries as a priority as shown by the fact that the state under his leadership did not owe workers throughout his first tenure.
The governor also warned that he would not tolerate any complaint of inability of the councils to pay salaries in the councils from this month.
He stressed that the state had not deducted any money from local government funds as they had enjoyed financial autonomy from the inception of his administration.

Dickson, who said that he would not fund the councils with monies from the state government urged the leadership of the councils to have a work force which they have the capacity to train, manage and maintain. According to him, the state could only come in to aid the primary school education system.