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The Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Alhaji Ismael Alli, has disclosed that the government spends the entire one hundred percent of the money received from the Federal Account Allocation Committee ( FAAC ) for the payment of monthly salaries to workers in the State.
According to him, the government took the decision despite the fact that the strength of workers in the state is just one percent of the entire population of Oyo State.
Alhaji Alli who made these revelations in Ilorin the Kwara state capital during an interview with journalists said there is hardly any state in the federation that commits its entire FAAC to salaries of its workers.
The SSG who was in Ilorin to attend a marriage ceremony said the government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi is committed and has the obligations to ensure regular payment of workers’ salaries, though, he admitted that the government still has some outstanding obligations on workers’ salaries but said there is understanding between the government and labour on the modalities for the payment of the outstanding salaries.
According to him, the government spent 60 percent from the previous Paris Club debt Refunds to the state for the payment of salaries, allowances and pension and the balance on developmental projects while the expected Paris refunds would also be spent judiciously with the involvement of all stakeholders.
He explained that the funds realized from the internally generated revenue in the state are used to take care of the remaining 99% population and for the execution of projects.
Alhaji Alli described as cordial the relationship between the Labour leaders and the entire workforce and praised the people of the state for their understanding, tolerance and sacrifice with government and their willingness to continue to contribute their quota towards the development of the state.
According to him , the present economic situation the country is going through is a global phenomenon which no government or governor has control over adding that what is most important is leaders ability to put certain mechanism in place to tackle the peculiar situations in their various states.
The SSG announced that the state had gone into agreement with a foreign firm for a free trade zone where state government expects the presence of about one hundred and seventy five companies in the next one year and thereby reduce governments dependence of federal allocation.
“Despite the challenges posed by funds scarcity, infrastructural facilities in the state the people have enjoyed a great boost with a network of dualized roads to ensure and enhance access to all the zones of the state.” he added
According to him ,the urban renewal initiative has also transformed the state making it attractive to investors and that the combination of all these has made the restoration, transformation and repositioning agenda of government credible and realistic
Alhaji Alli also disclosed that in the agric sector, the state is targeting one million farmers for the agric programme while a large portion of land is being accessed as well as the construction of Silo for storage of grains the year round while twenty eight local government areas has been identified for Agrarian farming.
According to him , a group of thirty one member committee had been appointed by the state government at improving the educational standards in the state which has already recommended the establishment of a school governing board per school to manage the affairs of the schools which comprised of school principals, community leaders , representatives of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education, local government chairmen , head boy or head girls of the various schools and other relevant stakeholders.
The SSG said unlike in the past, the state now enjoys relative peace and tranquility under the Governorship of Senator Ajimobi while violence , crime and criminality had reduced drastically with the establishment of various security outfits. |
