The Bayelsa state government on Friday declared a balance of N2.111 billion as at the end of April, 2020 as part of efforts of the Governor Douye Diri’s led administration to promote transparency and accountability in governance.
The Technical Assistant to the governor on Finance, Account and Revenue, Mr. Timipre Seipulou announced this in Yenagoa during the transparency briefing for the months of March and April, 2020.
Presenting the income and expenditure profile for the month of March, Mr. Seipulo explained that the gross inflow was N12.8 billion while total deductions from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) stood at about N1.5 billion leaving a net balance of N11.3 billion.
He said the internally generated revenue from the month of February was N848.9 million, funds from other sources came up to N1.5 billion, local government refunds bailout N16.3 million, total other receipts N2.4 billion in addition to net FAAC and other receipts amounted to about N13.7 billion.
The governor’s aide noted that the state government made a total payment of N4.8 billion for both capital and recurrent expenditures.
Mr Seipulou who also reported N8.4 billion as total payments for the month of April, said the state was left with a balance of N5.3 billion, leaving a balance of N573.5 million including a balance of N105.646 million brought forward from the month of February 2020.
For the month of April, Mr. Seipulo announced a gross inflow of N14.3 billion comprising statutory allocation of N2.5 billion, derivation N6.3 billion, extra savings from the Excess Crude Account N2.7 billion, Value Added Tax N1 billion and exchange differential of N1.5 billion.
The Technical Assistant on Finance, Account and Revenue also said that the total deductions from FAAC gulped N1.47 billion, which include, refund for budget support N152 million, refund on overpayment of derivation indices N128.3, Commercial Agricultural Credit (Scheme 2) N266.6 million among other components.
While declaring N1.2 billion as IGR for March, Mr Seipulou further explained that the state was left with a gross net FAAC inflow of N12.7 billion after total FAAC deductions of N1.47 billion.
He declared N8.1 billion as total outflows, consisting bank loans and contractual guarantees of N2.1 billion, civil servants salary N3.9 billion, part of arrears for payment of January salaries N409 million, salaries for political appointees and members of boards N119 million, gratuity payments N100 million among other items.
According to the governor’s aide, a balance of N5.86 billion was left in the state’s coffers excluding capital and recurrent payments of N4.3 billion leaving a balance of N1.58 billion.
He noted that the balance brought forward from the month of March was N573.5 million in addition to the balance of April (N1.583billion) stood at N2.111 billion as at the end of April, 2020.
Earlier in his speech, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Orientation, Chief Freston Akpor averred that the transparency and accountability posture of the present administration would no doubt build trust and promote good governance.
Chief Freston who lauded members of the finance team for their painstaking efforts at rendering the income and expenditure of the state government in compliance with the Transparency Law 2012.