BLEAK CHRISTMAS AHEAD: Bankruptcy fear hits states!

Amid deepening cash crunch, there is the fear that many states across the county are increasingly finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations.
1000-naira-notesBogged down by huge debts for which the bulk of the allocations from the Federation  Account is deducted to service, the situation has eroded the ability of the states to pay workers’ salaries.
The bailout package initiated by the Federal Government for the state and local governments to enable them pay the backlog of salaries, it was learnt, provided little respite.
Analysts feared, at the weekend, that many workers across the country may face bleak Christmas as their state governments may be unable to pay salaries ahead of the Yuletide due to the cash crunch.
Salary payment in several states remain in arrears of many months.
The huge debts of some of the debts were blamed on the sliding Naira as they were denominated in dollars at the time the states took foreign loans, and the fate of the Naira at the forex market was under control.
Today, the Naira exchanges for over 240 to the dollar.
In July 2014, N630.32bn was allocated  to  the three tiers of government – federal, states and local governments – from the Federation Account. Later in August of some year, N601.65bn was allocated to the states. For September 2015, the figures just released indicate that N389.936 was shared by all the tiers of government; representing drops of 35% and 38% from the August and July 2014 allocations. Yet, N601bn in August represented a sharp decline from the previous months in 2014. At the moment, the three tiers of  government  are sharing less than half of what was available in January 2014.
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http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/bleak-christmas-ahead-bankruptcy-fear-hits-states/