Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State battles with huge debt profile that may set his administration on collision course with the people, Special Correspondent, TERNA DOKI, writes.
Even as Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, is less than one month old in office, there are indications that the electorate are already yearning for action from his administration. Elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ortom succeeded Gabriel Suswam of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who spent eight years in the saddle.
Benue residents and indigenes, it was gathered, opted for change based on what many considered the extreme poor performance of the Suswam-led PDP government in the state.
Unpaid salaries of all categories of public servants, state’s indebtedness to local banks and bonds, as well as unpaid contracts, were some of their grievances against the former governor.
With the APC running the affairs of the state now, the people have been eager to experience change in their standard of living. They had, for instance, looked forward to immediate succour to public servants who are owed months of salaries.
Their expectations are, however, yet to be attended to.
Terhemen Boager, a political commentator, spoke on the dilemma of the people. “It appears the public euphoria that greeted this administration on assumption of office has died down. People are no longer excited that little or nothing is said about how to settle the arrears of salaries. There is no sermon that sweetens the ears of a hungry man. People just want their monies to be paid, so that they can survive,” he said.
Many express similar concern. It, however, appears that Governor Ortom’s administration is caught in the web of initial problems which it inherited from the previous government. For example, during his hand-over to Ortom on May 28, 2015, Suswam had claimed leaving a N9.3 billion debt profile to the succeeding administration. Many jubilated at the sum presented by Suswam, because it was considered relatively small compared to the fears of a huge debt burden that had been insinuated. The former governor had, at the occasion, claimed that infrastructural projects embarked upon by the administration and the dwindling oil revenues necessitated the indebtedness.
His words: “In our first outing, we accessed the sum of N13 billion from the market, while in the second we borrowed N5 billion. The first bond was utilised to complete some important projects. We have continued to repay the bond as and when due. In the second bond issue, we applied for N5 billion, but N4.9 billion was accessed. The proceeds of the bond were, however, converted by our bankers in lieu of earlier facilities obtained to pay workers’ salaries in the wake of dwindling accruals from the Federation Account.
“On the whole, a total of N6,834,053,397.51 is outstanding on the bond issue. The balance will be exited by May 16, 2016 based on the monthly repayment structure from Federation Allocation deductions.
“On the other hand, our exposure to commercial bank loans at the moment stands at N2,510,836,875.21. This brings our total indebtedness to N9,344,890,273.”
But Ortom, on assumption to office the next day, May 29, put a lie to the claim by Suswam. In his inaugural speech, he stressed that the figures in media reports on state’s debt profile was at variance with what was in his hand-over notes and promised to disclose the exact debt profile of the state within a week in office.
Against this backdrop, the governor released the debt profile of the state recently which indicated a huge difference from what Suswam had disclosed at the Makurdi Government House during the hand-over.
Ortom disclosed that tentative investigations revealed a debt burden of over N90 billion on the state in the last eight years. Giving a breakdown, the governor said N50 billion was for ongoing contracts, another N18 billion for certified contracts executed, N12 billion for unpaid salary arrears and about N10 billion in unpaid bonds and bank loans.
While reviewing the performance of the 2014 state budget during the presentation of the 2015 budget, Suswam disclosed that the state received slightly above N44.219 billion from the Federation Account from an estimated N69,680 billion expected from Statutory Allocation.
“A breakdown of our revenue receipt shows further that N44,219,037,344 accrued from Statutory Federation Account transfer. We received a total of N9,056,198,304 from Value Added Tax (VAT),” he stated.
However, bent on providing immediate relief to workers, Ortom disclosed that the government had concluded plans to seek loans to pay one month salary to all categories of workers across board.
However, TheNiche investigations indicate that while thousands of Benue people applauded his inaugural speech at the IBB Square in Makurdi, the pronouncement on borrowing to pay one month salary across board appears not to impress them, as it has rather dampened the morale of workers.
State chairman, National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Terungwa Igbe, disclosed on phone that council workers in the state are owed salaries since November 2014. “Even earlier ones paid, workers either got half salary and some even less than half salary,” he added.
In continuation of his appeasement efforts, Ortom also approached members of the striking Benue State University, Makurdi, branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU-BSU) with a request to shelve their strike for one month’s pay, promising to subsequently settle the arrears.
But the ASUU Congress, which met to deliberate on the governor’s plea, last week roundly rejected the offer. The union, which had been on strike as result of unpaid salaries, will have salary arrears accumulate up to four months by the end of this month. A source from the meeting confided in our reporter that ASUU had insisted that the government must pay at least three months’ salary at once for the members to suspend the strike.
Staff of Teaching Service Board (TSB) are also owed seven months; primary school teachers are owed five and a half months salary; state’s civil servants in smaller ministries have only collected January 2015 salary, while others, especially those in larger ministries, were last paid in December 2014. Pensioners are also owed arrears of more than six months.
A civil servant who pleaded anonymity said, “It’s clear that no category of worker in the state is owed less than five months. So, paying just one month salary is like a drop of water in the ocean.”
Thus, as Ortom grapples with these nagging problems of high debt profile and demoralised workforce, analysts predict tougher days ahead for his administration.