Katsina – Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State on Wednesday said 24 out of the 34 local government councils in the state are completely broke.
Masari told newsmen in Katsina that the 24 local government councils have no money to pay salaries and execute projects.
He added that even the 10 solvent local councils usually have no money left for projects after paying the salaries of their workers.
“Our local government councils are faced with scarcity of funds. As I am talking to you, some local government councils have no fund to even buy stationeries to work with in the offices.”
The governor revealed that the state government now spend between N600 million and N900 million monthly to bail out the councils, to pay salaries.
Masari said that the state government is using its savings to support the local councils, adding that the burden was becoming unbearable.
The governor explained that the government has no plans to hold local council elections in the state for now.
He said that the precarious financial problem facing the local government councils, would not be able to support an election.
“Based on estimation, about N10 million is needed monthly to pay salaries and allowances of elected chairmen, councillors, supervisory councillors and other officials of the councils,” Masari said.
The governor stressed that measures had been adopted to strengthen the capacity of all the 34 local government areas to explore new revenue options to save the system from total collapse. (NAN)