Aregbesola: Non-payment of salaries beyond my control

Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said the nonpayment of workers’ salaries in Osun State was a situation beyond his control. Speaking to State House correspondents in Abuja yesterday, the governor said it was heart-rending that he was in that quagmire.

“But no matter how sad, I don’t want to use the word ‘depressed,’ no matter how unhappy I am, the truth is that I’ll not fail to say that it’s a situation absolutely beyond my control,” Aregbesola said.

He blamed the situation on the sudden and rapid decline in the state’s allocation from the Federation Account, a situation which he said, had disorganised the state’s budget and other plans.

He said the problem started last July when the state received the June allocation short by 40 percent, adding that since then, what the state had been receiving from the Federation Account is less than the personnel cost.

The governor said if his state were alone in this situation, he would probably not have an excuse.

Aregbesola said he was not sure if there was any state “that will actually escape from the biting effect of the absolute sharp drop which I call economic disaster that we are grappling with.”

He said the situation was so sad that his government could not even go to banks to borrow to pay salaries, adding however, that he was struggling to reduce the pain as much as possible and that he was almost at the end of his efforts to ensure that by the end of this month, “I’ll have enough to, at least, meet, to a large extent, the salary needs of the workers.”