NEWS Don’t blame oil crash on debts – Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has advised states which owe workers’ salaries to revisit their expenditure instead of blaming it on the crash in crude oil prices.

Oshiomhole who said his state was meeting its obligations to workers, urged top-level public servants in the state to look inwards to ensure that the state continues to initiate and execute fresh capital projects in addition to completing ongoing ones and meeting basic recurrent expenditures in spite of dwindling resources from the federation account.

Speaking yesterday at a three-day retreat for members of the State Executive Council and permanent secretaries in Abuja, he said a lot still needs to be done to ensure that his administration finishes stronger than it started.

“There are wastages in our system. From our experience in Edo, without attacking wages, we have cut a couple of things without having to physically carry out retrenchment in the way some other state governments have done”, he said.

The guest speaker, Prof Doyin Salami, lauded the state government’s judicious use of funds which he noted was balanced between recurrent and capital projects, a feat he described as one of the best in the country and called for its sustenance.

He however urged the state government to look beyond the oil sector in generating revenue to enable the government deliver even more and consolidate on its developmental obligations to the people.