From Kenechukwu Obiajuru, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa government on Monday disclosed it actually received its share of the N570 billion grants from Federal Government.
President Bola Tinubu revealed during a recent broadcast in response to the hunger protest maintaining that it was for NG Cares Funds Intervention.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had disclosed at the heat of the #EndBadGovernace protest that the federal government disbursed N570 Billion to be shared among the 36 states to cushion the effect of hunger.
Speaking in Yenagoa during a Transparency Briefing for the months of May, June and July, 2024, Mr Timipre Seipolu, Technical Adviser to Bayelsa Governor on Treasury stated that the state got N10.8bn as share for the state.
Seipolu explained that the N570 billion referenced by President Tinubu was part of the NG Cares funds for social interventions in collaboration with the World Bank.
He explained: “Recently it’s been on the news that over N500 billion given to states in the country and some governors have actually tried to explain how the funds came, the funds are actually coming under NG Cares.”
“The NG Cares Programme is a Programme run by the states, the Federal Government and the World Bank and the programme is running in such a way that the states are expected to make some expenditures.”
“These expenditures are the areas of agriculture through FADAMA and after some period, like quarterly, the expenditures are refunded. That is after the projects are independently verified.”
“The support to SMEs and individuals like the vulnerable and elderly are dome in accordance to World Bank templates before refunds can be made and not complying with the template can lead to delays.”
“So the N10.8 billion the state received was money that the government spent on projects through the NG Cares.”
Seipolu also disclosed that as at June ending, the available fund stood at N112.26 billion adding that the fund has been earmarked for ongoing infrastructure projects across the state.
Giving the breakdown of income and expenditure of the state for the months of May, June and July, Seipulo, said the state got over N170 billion for the three months while the balance of N81.1 billion was brought forward from April raising it to N251.6 billion.
Earlier, Mrs Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy thanked the media for adequately reporting the Prosperity of the state government.
She also disclosed the commitment of the prosperity government to the transparency laws which she said makes it mandatory to disclose the income and expenditure profile of the state.
She said:” I want to thank the media for the role you have played in reporting the distribution of palliatives the federal government gave to the state and the issue of power outage in the state. I really appreciate your efforts.”
