Osun State Government has denied allegations of diversion of N34.99 billion bailout fund it received from the Federal Government to pay workers’ salaries.
The information is contained in a statement by Mr Semiu Okanlawon, the Media aide to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, in Osogbo on Sunday.
The government said the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) did not indict it over the disbursement of the fund.
It said the fact that ICPC was investigating claims that workers in the state received their last salaries in July, 2015 was enough for those monitoring developments in the state to conclude that the allegation could not have been true.
“This is because after the payment of seven months backlog of salaries last year, the government had proceeded to pay salaries on the agreed terms with workers.
“And this is why Osun has been able to pay its workers till January this year.
“There is no case of diversion of bailout loan as far as Osun is concerned.
” The state was able to accommodate pensioners in the bailout loans application when in actual fact pensioners were not part of the bailout scheme.
” But this was agreed upon by both government and workers.
“ The bailout was to take care of salaries backlog up till June last year. The report that Osun paid salaries last in July 2015 is laughable.
“If anything, the Osun government had demonstrated enough transparency by ensuring that the bailout loan was disbursed with adequate supervision of a committee of labour and government.
“We have insisted that Governor Aregbesola cannot be found wanting because whether in bailout funds or other funds of Osun he has been very creative in the management of the scarce resources to lift the state beyond the limit of the available resources.
