Osun govt. cautions Aregbesola’s aide over ‘mischievous narratives’ on state’s debt portfolio

The Osun state government has cautioned the immediate past Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro to desist from misleading the public with wrong narratives as regards the state’s debt portfolio.

The government, through its Debt Management Office (DMO) reminded Bolorubduro that he served as Commissioner for Finance for only three years in an administration which completed the two terms of eight years, hence he lacks full knowledge of what really transpired under the administration.

Reacting to the ex-commissioner’s write up published in a weekly local newspaper last week, the Director General, Osun DMO, Dr. Tunde Adejumo noted that there is no need for the State’s total debt stock to become a subject of argument when there is a Federal repository of debts stocks in the country. He explained that Federal Debt management office (DMO) keeps records of all borrowings by both the Federal and States’ governments in the country.

The piece by the Osun DMO Director General reads In part, “On the issue of the State’s monthly loan repayments, and monthly loan deductions from the Statutory receipts, these are verifiable details from both the offices of Accountant-General (AG) of the Federation and Federal Ministry of Finance (FMoF). Therefore, the unending narratives on Osun State’s Debt Stock and loan repayments from the former Commissioner of finance, in our view are mischievous and needless.

“Concerning the State’s total debt portfolio which Dr. Bolorunduro think is secretive (as it was during his time in the State’s ministry of finance), as usual, our office actually has nothing to hide.

“According to our records, the State’s total debt portfolio inherited by the current administration was truly well over =N=200billion.

“On the issue of deductions from the State’s monthly statutory accounts, and fund applied so far for loan repayments by the current administration, as at November 2018, monthly direct deductions for repayment of the State’s loan was =N=2.61billion.

“This excludes other deductions from the State’s IGR for internal loans’ repayments. This amounted to over =N= 130million”.

He continued, “Following the full repayments of the State’s =N=30billion Bond and =N=11.4billion Sukuk in 2019 and 2020 respectively however, direct deductions from the State’s monthly revenue had reduced to =N=1.8billion, while indirect deductions (from the State’s IGR) for loan repayments subsists.

“Total deductions from the State’s statutory revenue for the month of January 2022, appropriated recently was =N=1,836,968,138.03 (One billion, eight hundred and thirty six million, nine hundred and sixty eight thousand, one hundred and thirty eight Naira, three kobo) only, against a Gross statutory allocation of =N=1.46billion.

“This can be verified officially from the appropriate agency of the FGN as earlier indicated. I hope our egg-head Doctor could now see that the State government’s claim of negative statutory receipt from the Federation account for the referenced month actually adds up contrary to his insinuation.

“For avoidance of doubts, we wish to add that till date, the current administration has applied over =N=70billion for the State’s loan repayment. This excludes amount applied for part payment of the Domestic non-borrowing debts such as Pension and gratuity, contractors’ arrears etc inherited from the immediate past administration.

“While claiming full knowledge of the State’s financial affairs inclusive of the State’s level of exposure during the preceding administration, Dr. Bolorunduro perhaps needs to be reminded that he served as the State Commissioner of finance under the last administration for only a period of three years ending in November 2014. One therefore wonders why he keeps claiming to be a Registry of all the financial transactions during the whole 8 year tenure of the immediate past administration. Whereas, we are not unaware of his usual clandestine moves and antics in breaking through the State’s firewalls, it will be advisable for him to be sure of his figures at least. It would be recalled that our office had earlier raised concern on his usual contentious statistics and tenuous narratives about the financial affairs of the current government in the State.

“In his referenced publication, the former commissioner, also made an assertion that monthly loan repayment ordinarily should be met from the State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). As fiscally logical as this argument sounds, it is quite astonishing that this was not the case when the self-acclaimed Financial Guru was in charge of the State’s finance. As a matter of fact, the State’s IGR was at best, only about 25% of the State’s loan repayment throughout his 3 year tenor as Finance commissioner in the State”, Adejumo concluded.