Outgoing Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom has formally presented handover notes of his eight years administration to the Governor-elect Hyacinth Alia.
Governor Ortom put the total income that accrued to the State during his administration from all sources, including Statutory income, Value Added Tax, Internally Generated Revenue, and other FAAC incomes involving Grants, Refunds, and Loans, at N734.96 billion as of 30th April 2023 in the handover notes contained in three volumes.
According to the outgoing Governor, the total expenditure on both recurrent items such as Salary and wages, Pension and Gratuity, Overhead or cost of running government services, loan service obligations, refunds and remittances to Local Government Councils and Capital Expenditure during his 8 years tenure amounted to N735.6 billion as at 30th April 2023.
Ortom however said the debt profile of Benue State Government at the time of the exit of his Administration from office stood at N187.56 billion.
The figure is inclusive of Salary and Pension Arrears, Loans and Bonds as well as outstanding Contractual obligations, said the Governor.
He explained that he had reached an agreement between the state and the Federal Government on a debt swap for State and Local Governments to the tune of about N71.6 billion.
Ortom said Benue State had outstanding approvals awaiting disbursement from the Federal Government including a balance of bailout of N41billion, CBN facilities referred to as DCRR put at N20 billion
He urged the incoming administration to take up the issue of the release of such disbursements for the benefit of the State.
On the issue of pension which has continued to pose a major governance challenge to successive administrations in the state, Governor Ortom recalled that his regime inherited huge pension liabilities when he took over in 2015.
Between 2015 and 2023, he said his administration expended over N2.4 billion on payment of gratuity and N24.4 billion on Pension at the State level.
He explained that factors such as the establishment of several new Secondary and Higher educational institutions as the impetus for development on the advice of the Federal Government and Partners to drive needed Programmes led to significant expansion of the work force thereby increasing pension liabilities of the state.
He claimed that the scenario drove his administration to domesticate the Federal Government’s Reforms in Pension Administration through the Benue State Pension Law, 2019, which introduced the Contributory Pension Scheme.
Samuel Ortom asked the people of the state to work with the new administration and to continue to pray for the state’s peace and development.
Hyacinth Alia, who received the transfer documents, praised the outgoing administration and his incoming team, all of whom were present at the brief ceremony.
