The Plateau State Commissioner of Finance, Mrs Tamwakat Weli has said that the debt profile of the state  still remains 42 billion naira which gives Governor Simon Lalong  serious concerns.

Weli gave this disclosure during a press briefing on the receipt of the second 2nd tranche of Paris London refund held in the conference hall, ministry of finance in jos yesterday.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Malam Sani Yahaya, Weli said the second tranche of Paris London refund was eaten up by the overdraft used in payment of pension and salaries of workers which state share 60.06% N3,389,880.68 while 17 LGAs gulped 39.94% amounting to N2,254,245,174.73 respectively.

 She added  that the monthly salaries of the state workforce and pensioners is in the average of 2.25 billion when government is mindful of uncompromising determinations and obligation in bettering the welfare of its workers and pensioners also the competing demands .

    The commissioner lamented that the state government were left with no other option rather than to rely solely on bank overdraft to meet up with these challenges since 2015 to date .

Breaking down of the salaries /pension from the  50% of state  N1,694,916,940.34, capital /recurrent expenditure 50%
N1,694,916,940.34.
and LGAs salaries /pension 50% N1,127,122,587.37 capital  recurrent N1,127,122,587.37.

According to the statement “We have an overdraft debt balance of the deficit  sum of N1,960,778,585.86 that has to be settled before the end of this month”.

You would recall on the 13th December, 2016 when the first tranche of Paris London refund was released to state and the 17 LGAs to the total of N10,497,000,000.00 and the state got N6,304,498,200.00, local governments N4,192,501,800.00 .