Delta Govt promises to pay pensioners soon

The Delta State Government in the days ahead, it will commence payments of its financial obligations to pensioners in the state as well as workers’ co-operatives so as to meet the needs of their members.

Mr. Ukah

A statement signed by the Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr Patrick Ukah, in Asaba confirmed that the state owes its pensioners but does not owe workers’ wages except on check-off deductions for co-operatives and unions, and it is not as alarming as portrayed by a recent publication.

BMN reports that this is obviously cheering news to pensioners whose executives were recently at office of the Secretary to government, SSG to complain about the non payment of their pensions for some months now. They complained that with the biting recession and the non payment of their entitlements, life was become quite harrowing for them, as some of them cannot buy medications, feed and meet other financial obligations to their families.  

The commissioner’s statement was a reaction to a list of indebted states that was released by BudgIT, a civil organization that monitors budget implementation statistics in Nigeria, and was widely published across Nigeria by media outlets.

Mr Ukah revealed that the state is expecting a refund from the Federal Government and when the refund is received, it will be used to address financial obligations to pensioners and workers’ check-off deductions.

According to the Commissioner for Information, the state’s inability to meet all its financial obligations is attributed to inherited debts that are religiously being serviced from the state's receipts, drastic drop in federal allocation to the state, and the Niger Delta crisis that has negatively affected the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.

On the 2016 budget performance, Mr Ukah disclosed that the overall picture reflects a 98 percent budget performance. 

However, if the proportional period of January to September is considered, the budget performance in respect to personnel cost is 100 percent, performance of overhead cost is 74 percent, while consolidated revenue sharing is 100 percent. 

On capital expenditure performance, the overall budget performance (i.e. the total provision of capital vis-à-vis what has been expended to date) is 16 percent. Once again, if the proportional period of January to September is considered, the budget performance is 24 percent. 

The Commissioner for Information said that it is also worthy to note that payments are still being made and by the year end, the total budget performance would have appreciated beyond the 24 percent.

He stated that presently, the overall performance of the budget is 44 percent but the proportional period of January to September total budget performance is 66 percent. 

We are optimistic that by the end of the year the overall budget performance would have considerably appreciated.