Bayelsa Begins Payment Of New Minimum Wage

Bayelsa State Government said it has begun the implementation of the new minimum wage as well as payment of its arrears to civil servants in the state, Punch reports.

Technical Adviser to the Governor on Accounts, Revenue and Finance, Timpre Seipulo, made the disclosure on Friday during the Transparency Briefing for the months of March and April in Yenagoa.

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Governor Douye Diri had announced on May Day this year that the administration was committed to implementing the new minimum wage of N80,000 and the 25 per cent and 35 per cent salary increment.

Seipulo’s declaration on the commencement of the payment of the new minimum wage and arrears was not up a month after Diri’s pronouncement.

The Technical Adviser on Accounts, Revenue and Finance also declared that Bayelsa State had a balance of over N174 billion in the treasury at the end of April this year.

According to him, while the salary of the civil servants for the month of March amounted to N6.1 billion, that of April was N6.5 billion as N266 million was used for salary arrears on the new minimum wage for last year.

The amount used for payment of gratuities stood at N363 million, pension arrears N193 million while N1.7 billion was used to settle the salaries of political appointees for the month of April.

Seipulo said among other things that the state government spent N16 billion on the Yenagoa Phase 2 and Phase 3 roads, N3.0 billion for the state independent power plant, over N10 billion for the clearing and sand-filling of the Ekeremor-Toru-Ndoro-Agge Road and N4.0 billion for the Nembe-Brass Road.

Other projects on which expenditure were made were the dualisation of the Sampou road, Odi shore protection and reclamation works on the site of the new Olympic size stadium epurchase of security vans.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mrs Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, stressed that government would continue to render accounts to the people of the state.

“The state government will continue to render accounts to the people of the state,” she stated while applauding the media for its professionalism.

In attendance at the briefing were the State Accountant General, Tokoni Ifidi, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Mr. Ifiemeya Borisei and the Director, Bayelsa New Media, Dr. Kolawole Oredipe.