Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola yesterday took a swipe at the former Head of Service, Elder Segun Akinwusi, who said unpaid salaries were caused by financial recklessness.
Akinwusi, in a report published in yesterday’s Punch, said the Aregbesola administration had borrowed more than its capacity.
He said this was why the state cannot pay its workers.
But the government, in a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Semiu Okanlawon, said Akinwusi has demonstrated that “he lacks basic knowledge of public finance”.
The statement said: “It is not unexpected for the likes of Akinwusi to want to score cheap popularity and political points with issues of delayed salaries.
“But his reasons for the delay are wide off the mark for any intelligent rationalisation.
“The Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Dr. Abraham Nwakwo, told the world last year that no one can fault Osun’s debt portfolio as the state did not borrow beyond its capacity. What has changed after that?
“For Akinwusi to attribute unpaid salaries to what he thinks are excessive borrowings merely confirms mischief, ignorance and calculated moves to misinform the public.
“Just yesterday, the papers were awash with queries to the Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to explain the whereabouts of the $20 billion Excess Crude Account funds.
“If the issue of delayed salaries cuts across the entire country and even the Federal Government, can we then say that all the states have borrowed beyond their capacities?
“Has the Federal Government too borrowed beyond its capacities? As at last week, some workers under the employment of the Federal Government countered the Finance Minister over her claim that the Federal Government is not owing any of its workers.
“In all honesty, can Akinwusi come up with evidence to defend his claim that the Aregbesola administration borrowed ‘twice the value of road projects it is executing’ according to him?
“Nigerians should be reminded that this was the same Akinwusi, who ignorantly told the world last year that Osun had borrowed more than N300 billion to the consternation of knowledgeable people.
“If a state like Osun had borrowed N300 billion, Mr. Akinwusi forgot to explain how much would be required to pay interest on the loan let alone the capital.
“Would the state have survived till 2014 if it had been under such heavy burden?”
Aregbesola, the statement added, has run a very prudent administration.
“That the national revenue crisis has forced Osun to join states with delayed salaries does not obliterate the facts of his achievements,” Okanlawon stated
The statement urged the people to dismiss Akinwusi’s claims.