Bayelsa Releases N10bn to Contractors, Cuts Spending on Govt Appointees

The Bayelsa State Government yesterday announced that it released N10.4bn in February and March to contractors handling various capital projects across the state, especially those building roads and bridges.

Salaries of all political appointees, the state's Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd), who spoke at the monthly transparency briefing said, had also been slashed to free some funds to revamp public infrastructure in the state.

Speaking on the rationale behind the reduction of salaries of political appointees, including the commissioners, Jonah said the government was caught between reducing the number of appointees or cutting down on government spending on their welfare, noting that it chose the latter.

"The government had the option to either halve the salaries to make savings or reduce the number of the commissioners. We felt it couldn't be wise enough to reduce the number of commissioners because of the political implications of the spread.

"In as much as you are talking of the economy, you are also talking about social issues. We decided that commissioners must make sacrifice. If you knew the salaries of commissioners before this time, what they have now is slightly less than half.

"They must all make sacrifice because of the realities on ground. The same applies to other appointees", the Deputy Governor said.

According to him, N4.2bn was paid to contractors in February while N6.2bn was released to the contractors in March, with the gross inflow to the state from the Federa- tion Allocation Account (FAAC) in February including Statutory receipt of N2.9bn and derivation of N10.4bn being N15.20bn.

Giving an insight into some of the capital projects the N10.4bn was used to finance, the deputy governor named the New Yenagoa City project among others as some of the capitalintensive jibs the government was embarking upon.

"We are to launch the new Yenagoa City. We have to cross over the Onopa bridge. We don't want work to be suspended again. So part of the money went to that project.

"Julius Berger has come back again for Isaac Boro Road. It is a major project that the government has embarked upon. I won't be able to tell exactly, but I don't think any of them was paid less than a billion naira to come back and start.