The Bayelsa State Government on Friday assured that the Sagbama-Ekeremor Road would be completed within the life-span of the present administration as N7.4 billion has already been expended in the month of July for on-going projects scheduled for commissioning towards the end of this year and the first quarter of 2018.

The state Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (rtd), made the assertion during the transparency media briefing for the month of July, 2017 at the Government House, Yenagoa.

According to him, the balance from the federation account in July, including receipts of funds from other sources came up to N10 billion, out of which, N7.4 billion was spent on capital payments while recurrent payments gulped N2.2 billion.

Jonah noted that the government’s priority lies on completing projects earmarked for commissioning, stressing that no major new projects would be executed unless finances of the state improves.

On the income report from the federation account, the Deputy Governor said that the state received N10.6 billion as gross inflow, comprising statutory allocation of N3.2 billion, derivation N6.5 billion, refund from other states N57.5 million, and Value Added Tax N743 million.

Jonah also explained that net inflow was N9.3 billion and Internally Generated Revenue for the month of June was N752.4 million.

He also noted that, the total deductions from the federation account stood at N1.5 billion, which included bond deduction of N421.5 million, restructured commercial bank loan, N741 million and salary bailout to the state N16.3 million.

On expenditure, Jonah declared N12.9 billion as total outflow, while balance brought forward from June stood at N3.2 billion, leaving a balance of N4.8 billion as funds available as at the end of July.

In his remarks, the Commissioner for Information, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite said the transparency and accountability posture of the restoration administration has paid off as it had earned the state international recognition.

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