Plateau state governor Simon Lalong has revealed that the state government had recovered N2.7 billion through the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) in the state.
Lalong made this known at the All Progressives Congress (APC) media roundtable in Abuja, saying the money, which had
hitherto been missing, was traced to some accounts in the state and have been recovered.
He said that the recovery had enabled him
to pay workers in the state, who had been
on strike for months, at a time.
“Recently, we recovered about N2.7 billion
in the state, money that was regarded as
lost. We traced and recovered the money
which was meant for teachers.
“Teachers, civil servants, the judiciary had
gone on several months of strike; some
nine, some 11 but now, since I came on
board, we did our best. We now have
arrears of salaries of only two months.
“For teachers, we paid all; they are back to
work. The judiciary is also back to work. So,
for the plateau, we are moving on well.
“In the area of corruption, we are putting
pressure on the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) to hasten their
investigations so that they can begin
prosecution and we can also gain recovery
of looted funds,’’ Lalong said.
He said that several other cases had also
been sent to the EFCC and the Independent
Corrupt Practices and other Related
Offences Commission (ICPC), “which will
yield results soon’’.
He disclosed that like the Federal
Government, there was pressure to stop
prosecution of some cases, while some
people with concrete evidence refused to
come out to testify.
He, however, said that such antics did not
and would not deter the government from
pushing for the recovery of stolen funds in
the state.
The governor said that he was unsure why
other governors were finding it difficult to
implement the TSA, disclosing that the
merits of the system outweighed its
demerits.
“I am not an accountant but immediately I
became aware of both the advantages and
disadvantages of TSA, I gave the instruction
that it should be implemented.
“I organised a committee immediately and
today, TSA is being implemented.
“I don’t know why some governors are
finding it difficult to implement TSA in their
states but out of the TSA implementation in
our state, we have gained some dividends.
“We are now tracing some accounts that
were not known to us before and we are
seeing some excesses in those accounts,
especially in some of the ministries.
“So, I will advise other states that have not
yet implemented TSA to do so,’’ he said.
Lalong assured that in spite of the reduction
in monthly allocation to the state, there
would be no downsizing of workers in the
state.
“It will be very difficult to downsize on the
plateau; I don’t intend to and I will not. All I
want to do is to maintain what I have and
also improve on it.
“That’s why our concentration is on
improving on the revenue so that we can, if
possible, employ additional workforce.
“Downsizing in this present administration
is going to be very difficult; the president
has advised state governments and even
corporate organisations not to downsize,’’
he said.
The governor said that although he was yet
to pay all outstanding salaries, he would do
so as soon as the Federal Government paid
the bailout he applied for in full.
“Before the issue of bailout, we had already
started paying workers in the state.
“When the issue of bailout came, we applied
for N10 billion which was supposed to be
for the arrears of salaries for about eight to
nine months and so far, we have only
received N5 billion.
“Plateau was supposed to get N10 billion
for salaries and for infrastructure but all we
have got so far from the Central Bank of
Nigeria is N5 billion.
“Even with that, we have been able to clear
most of the arrears of salaries; we only have
an outstanding of two months salaries not
paid in our state.
“We have paid all the outstanding salaries
for all our local governments. If I am able to
get my balance of N5 billion, within a week,
all the remaining salaries would have been
cleared.’’
