The Osun Debt Management Office has revealed the total debt by former administrator of of Osun state.
A statement issued by the Director-General of the office, Dr Tunde Adejumo, disclosed that an attempt by a former Commissioner of Finance in the state to discredit the office over the state debt profile is an exercise in futility.
“As the current head of the State’s Debt Management Office (DMO), I wish to maintain that the Debt portfolio passed by the last administration to the current administration in the State is in excess of N200billion. At this time, I think I need to explain that the Public debt portfolio of either a Sovereign or Sub-national does not refer only to borrowings (which could be either domestic or external), but also includes domestic expenditure arrears.
“These are government liabilities on financial obligations already dispensed with or services rendered with whose payments are yet to be made. These include Contractors’ arrears, Salary arrears, Pension and gratuities, judgemental debts, and government-to-government debts. The totality of this, added to the loan amount is what is referred to as Debt stock.
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“I am indeed shocked that a former Finance commissioner will be questioning the rationale (and the applicable Accounting standard) for my inclusion of domestic arrears as part of government’s liability or Debt portfolio. If Salary arrears, contractors’ arrears, Pension and gratuity outstanding are not debt hanging on the State government, how come workers, contractors and pensioners in the State keep agitating for settlement of their arrears?
“Am certain all the people concerned will be shocked to hear that their expected arrears do not qualify to be classified as debt in the State’s record simply because they were not collateralised as indicated in his roguish outburst.
“Apart from recognising them as part of the debt portfolio, all the states in the country are currently being urged to develop a workable framework for managing Domestic arrears considering their numerous economic and multiplier impacts.
“For us in Osun, the process of verification of the various domestic arrears and development of the required framework for managing same is yet to be concluded while the current administration keeps allocating funds to reduce this. Hence my office’s restrain on quoting a specific figure on same” the statement reads partly.