The Bayelsa State Government, under Governor Seriake Dickson, expended over N859.540m for the payment of salaries of political appointees in the months of June and July 2019.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Maxwell Ebibai, who made this known in Yenagoa during the income and expenditure briefing for June and July 2019, noted that the wage bill of civil servants in the two months was over N6.735bn.
Also present at the event were the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson and the state’s Accountant-General, Mr Daniel Eniekezimene.
Ebibai explained that the political appointees’ salaries for June and July were N429.303m and N430.237m, respectively, while civil servants’ salaries for the two months stood at N3.60bn and N3.135bn.
The finance commissioner, who declared N701.5m as balance brought forward from the month of June, put the funds available as of the end of July at N399m.
Ebibai also said recurrent and capital payments gulped a total of N6.4bn.
Journalists were not allowed to ask questions at the end of the commissioner’s presentation of the finances for the two months.
But Iworiso-Markson, in his remarks, described the transparency and accountability policy of the Dickson-led administration as “an important legacy.”
The information commissioner said successive administrations would have no choice but to continue with the initiative as it was backed by law, adding that it would stand the test of time.
