Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State has declared N13 billion missing from the account of the State’s Ministry of Finance.
Masari made this known during his maiden news conference in Katsina on Thursday.
“We are investigating the whereabouts of this staggering sum in the document handed over to the Transition Committee.
“The Ministry of Finance has failed to account for this whopping sum of money.’’
The governor said there was a huge gap from the records the former administration handed over to the transition committee of his government.
Masari said the government had set up a panel to go through the financial records which the former administration handed over to his administration to know the true position of things.
The governor said N700 million got missing from account of the Primary Education Board within one year.
He said the government had directed the Chairman and Executive Secretary of the board to go on compulsory leave.
The governor said his administration would carry out extensive investigation with a view to be fair to all.
Masari appealed to the people to be patient as government was determined to provide more dividends of democracy to them after all the investigations.
Masari also revealed that retired local government workers were being owed N6.2 billion in gratuity.
Masari said the discovery was made by the Transition Committee.
He said his administration would publish all the findings of the committee for public information.
The governor also said the N3.7 billion which the immediate past governor claimed to have left in the coffers was in the SURE-P account and not the state government account.
“The past administration left only N9.9 million in the state government account. They claimed to have left money in the state coffers, while the state owed retirees N6.2 billion.
“So, it is better not to leave anything than to accumulate huge amount of unpaid gratuities’’, he said.
Masari further said that the state had $78 million debt to contend with.
“Borrowing is not a fault, but how the money was spent is the major issue, because even the strong economies in the world do borrow money to finance their expenditure’’, he said.
He said government had revoked all houses and hajj seats allocations to ensure fairness among people of the state.
Masari restated the readiness of his administration to operate an open door policy by designing policies that would enhance the living conditions of the people.
