You lack full knowledge of Osun debt problem, state DMO boss tells Aregbesola’s finance commissioner

Director General of the Osun Debt Management Office (DMO), Tunde Adejumo says former Finance Commissioner in the state, Wale Bolorunduro does not have the full knowledge of the state’s debt profile.

Adejumo was responding to claims by Bolorunduro that the state’s debt status was secretive.

He cautioned the former commissioner to desist from misleading the public with wrong narratives as regards the state’s debt portfolio.

“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 the 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 N200billion.

“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 N2.61billion.

“This excludes other deductions from the state’s IGR for internal loans’ repayments. This amounted to over N130million.

“Following the full repayments of the state’s N30billion Bond and N11.4billion Sukuk in 2019 and 2020 respectively, however, direct deductions from the state’s monthly revenue had reduced to N1.8billion, 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 N1,836,968,138.03 (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 =N1.46billion.

“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 =N70billion 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 tenor 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,” Adejumo said.