The All Progressives Congress Government in Plateau State says it has
judiciously maximized the funds that accrued to the state within the 15
months of the administration.
The state Commissioner of Information and Communications, Malam
Mohammed Nazif, told Journalists on Monday that all the critical sectors
of economy were given due attention during the period under review.
Nazif, who was accompanied to the briefing by his counterparts from
the Ministry of Works and Transport, Urban Development, Environment,
Finance, Commerce and other Directors and Permanent Secretaries form
other Ministries, said the briefing, which has been approved at the
State Executive Council meeting is to hold every first Monday of every
month.
According to him, this is to clear the air on what the government has
been able to do so as to provide the opposition with the best
alternatives to shape their criticism as to whether the change mantra is
on the right track or not.
According to Nazif, the government on assumption placed high premium
on the welfare of its workers and has been able to clear the seven
months backlog of salaries inherited from the former Jonah Jang
administration and has cleared salaries from June 2015 to May 2016 and
will soon commence payment of June 2016 salaries.
He stressed that the ministry, being the coordinating ministry of the
one year three months in office of the administration, has been able to
live up to its statutory responsibilities of gathering and
disseminating information on government policies and had gone further to
enter into retainernship with NTA, AIT, STV, FRCN (Highland FM) and
Unity FM.
He said during the period, the state played the role of the pilot
state for the switch over from analog to digital broadcasting, which the
Federal Ministry of Information, through the National Broadcasting
Commission and distributed 200,000 set top boxes free of charge to the
people Jos North, Jos South and Jos East local government areas.
Nazif said one of the challenges of the administration was the problem of finances.
According to him: “You will recall that that we inherited N210 billion debt from the immediate past administration.
“We also inherited a backlog of unpaid salaries and pension and gratuity
to the tune of N9.8 billion and N10.037 billion respectively.
“With the salary bailout of N5.3 billion and N5.2 billion, we were able to pay the whole salary arrears and part of pension.
“Out of it, local governments were given N2.5 billion to settle all outstanding salaries of their staff.
“Today, all salaries from June 2015 to May 2016 have been paid,
amounting to N19.5 billion, while the salary of June is being
transmitted.
“The sum of N1,654,628,122.29 has been paid as pension from June 2015
to December 2015 and that of January 2016 will soon be paid.
“Similarly, pensions of higher institutions for December 2015 to March 2016 amounting to N116,647,923.23 has been paid.”