By SAMUEL JONES
YENAGOA (Sundiata Post) – The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Hon. Ayibaina Duba, has declared that there are no stalled projects in the state.
Duba made the declaration in Yenagoa in his welcome remarks at the Transparency Briefing on Thursday where the income and expenditure profile for the months of February and March 2023 were made known to newsmen.
According to him, in spite of dwindling income from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), “Tell Bayelsa people that no project, no matter the cost implication, is stalled.”
He assured that “As a responsive and responsible government, we will continue to meet our obligations.”
Duba’s declaration comes as the Governor Douye Diri administration is embarking on three major road projects to hit the Atlantic coast from the three senatorial districts at an enormous cost outlay.
With little monthly internally generated revenue and over reliance on FAAC allocations, the government is also carrying out other major projects in other sectors of the economy.
In the income and expenditure profile presented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Hon. Maxwell Ebibai, total receipts for February less FAAC deductions stood at N22.472 billion and total recurrent expenditure was N21.292 billion.
The state, however, had a closing balance of N9.863 billion for February due to balance brought forward from January, which Ebibai said was “our positive closing balance as at the end of February. This was the money we had in our hands before we went into the month of March.”
In March, Bayelsa also had a negative balance of N5.975 billion, which was only made good by the balance brought forward from February leaving a closing balance of N3.887 billion.
Ebibai disclosed that the government set aside a billion Naira for the payment of gratuities in February due to available funds.
