The Osun State Government is appealing to all its pensioners to exercise patience that the arrears owed will be paid.
It attributed the delay in payment to the shortfall of its allocation from the federal account.
Addressing newsmen in Osogbo, the state capital, the Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, said that the escalating revenue crisis in the country was seriously affecting the working machineries of state governments and that the impact on Osun was severe.
According to him, Osun revenue had been suffering serious decline since June 2013, a situation not peculiar to Osun State alone, causing the State Government to augment its monthly salary payment from its savings by about 1billion Naira.
Dr. Bolorunduro stated that the debt inherited as pension arrears from the past administration was 250million, but it was, however, jacked to 650million due to mass retirement of public servants who opted out of contributory pension scheme in 2013.
He, however, gave assurance that the State Government would keep deploying strategic measures to cope with the cash crunch and ensure that all the arrears were cleared.
The Commissioner was also quick to debunk all insinuations that Government intends to cut down on salaries of the work force or retrench, in order to be able to meet up its statutory role in social and developmental efforts.
