The Bayelsa State Government has claimed it received N27.5bn out of the N38.4bn which the Federal Government announced as refund to the state for some executed federal road projects.

Governor Douye Diri, represented at the event by his Technical Adviser on Revenue, Treasury and Accounts, Mr Timipre Seipulou, stated this at the weekend during the income and expenditure briefing for the months of November and December 2020 in Yenagoa.

Bayelsa was among five affected states the Federal Executive Council had in June 2020 approved a refund of N148bn which they spent on reconstruction of some federal roads in their jurisdictions.

The breakdown of the fund had indicated that Bayelsa would get N38.4bn; Rivers (N78.953bn); Cross River (N18.394bn); Ondo (N7.822bn) and Osun (N2.468bn).

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However, Diri, who was represented at the event by Seipulou, claimed that the state got N27.5bn and not N38.4bn.

He explained that the Federal Government had structured the refund in such a manner that it would take the beneficiaries between three and four years to access their funds.

He said by the federal arrangement, states that could not wait for the period to elapse would receive a discounted refund.

According to him, the N27.5bn was therefore the discounted refund that accrued to the state government’s coffers instead of the N38.4bn.

He said, “A refund for infrastructure development from the Federal Government is N27, 512, 45,000, 42.14k.”