RE: INHERITED DEBT OF PLATEAU STATE BY THE LALONG ADMINISTRATION

My attention has been drawn to the continuous falsehood, propaganda, outright lies and deceit by the plateau state government on the inherited debts from the Jonah Jang administration to the Simon Lalong administration as at May 29th 2015.

The present administration, in an attempt to, confuse and misinform the plateau people have or they are also confused, have been brandishing some very funny and imaginary figures as inherited debts.

First and foremost, was the Tyoden’s transition committee report which puts the inherited debts from the previous administration at N220billion. Several other commentators from the administration have speculated the indebtedness at N240billion , N250billion etc. With the latest figure being the Over N222billion by the Governor at his speech to the visiting president.

The fact that the Governor chose to estimate the figure rather than being exact is an indication of lack of certainty, or is it deliberate misinformation?
Several thoughts came into my mind when I tried to comprehend the whole confusion, some of which are:

I. Either the government does not have intelligent hands to read and interpret the handover notes which clearly stated the indebtedness at N105billion comprising of loans, and other liabilities such as salary, pension and gratuity arrears, contractor’s certificates and other liabilities or
II. It is a deliberate attempt to rubbish the excellent work of its predecessor who has set the standard of governance in the state, which the administration is battling to follow or
III. The total lack of direction, focus and capacity to govern.

I am aware that several actors in the Jonah Jang administration, Including my good self have vividly explained and clarify this issue of indebtedness both in the electronic and print media including the social media, but the ‘mistake ‘ keeps being repeated.

For the avoidance of doubt and to once more educate the public on the issue, we hereby summarise the status of our indebtedness as contained in the handover notes on 29th May 2015 as follows:

A. LOANS
I. Commercial bank loans ……………………. N19,677,705,528.11
II. Refinancing bond ……………………. N26,980,170,775.84
III. Inter agency loans …………………….. N6,129,439,219.88
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N52,787,315,523.83
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B. LIABILITIES
I. Contractor’s arrears and other liabilities …………… N25,243,620,844.41
II. Salary arrears …………… N10,210,712,064.08
III. Pension and gratuity arrears ……………. N9,572,607,140.79
IV. Severance gratuity …………….. N635,497,817.94
V. Outstanding staff leave transport grant …………….. N146,593,126.36
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Total liabilities N45,809,030,993.58
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OTHER LIABILITIES
I. Federal government loans, external loans on lend to states for projects such as fadama 11, 111, HIV/AIDS, HSDP, CSPD, Arrears of counterpart funds etc…………….. N6,623,940,144.42
Total indebtedness as at 29th May 2015 as per handover notes( ie loans, and liabilities) ……..N105,220,386,571.85

I therefore challenge anyone who has contrary figures outside what is submitted above to bring them forward and justify them.

We are aware that the state government was granted a rare privilege of two or three tranches of bailout funds to clear all salary arrears, this is in addition to the release of Paris club exit 1 and 2, budget support funds amongst others.
But, Contrary to the claim of the Governor that he has cleared all salary arrears and he is up to date in salary payments, the political office holders of the previous administration have neither been paid their salary arrears nor severance packages, despite the fact that these figures were included in the computation for bailout which was fully released. If we May ask, what happened to that portion of the funds?

If the government as claimed that it has cleared all salary arrears and paid some contractor’s certificates, then, how much is the current state of indebtedness of the present administration?
I also read in the news that the current indebtedness of the state government is N120billion. If we do a simple arithmetic N222billion less N120billion = N102billion. Does it mean that the state government has paid a whopping sum of N120billion within it’s three years? If so, to whom did they pay such monies to.

There are speculations that the state government May be indebted to the tune of over N500billion. Let the government come out clean on this matter.

We should note that public office is public trust, therefore, there should be no secret in financial transactions of the state, since public not private funds are involved.

Finally, while I commend the Governor for continuing with the people’s orientated projects of his predecessor, I wish to sincerely advice that the state government should go beyond political propaganda to achieve cheap political goals to a more technical and analytical consideration of the issue for the benefit of the plateau citizens..

I rest my case.

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Hon. Davou C. Mang, Former Finance Commissioner Replies Plateau Government on Indebtedness Handed Over, Insists it was N105.2Billion