States governments Furious with FG over August Federation Account Disbursement

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

Minister of Finance Dr Okonjo Iweala

There was a mild drama today at the venue of federation account allocation committee meeting in Abuja as finance commissioners across the states protested the non-appearance of minister of state for finance, Ngama Yerima who is also the chairman of the committee.

The finance commissioners from the 36 of the federation have converged on the invitation of the minister of state for finance to clear the backlog of all outstanding allocations.

The atmosphere became tensed when the accountant general of the federation, Jonah Otunla told finance commissioners that minister was not in the country and there was no fund to share to the states and local governments.

Speaking with Journalists, the chairman of finance commissioners forum, who is also the Ebonyi state commissioner for finance, Timothy Odah said they have met for the second time within the month of September and the meeting has been stalemated, while states and local governments interest have suffers set back because of the lack of funds..

Odah, explained that the way out of the impending economy crisis in the country is payment of all outstanding allocations to states of the federation and local government.

Meanwhile, as a result of stalemate of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on Monday, the federal government released N548.393 billion as the Statutory Revenue for the three tiers of government for the month of August.

According to a statement from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) the disbursements is an improvement over the figure of N497.984 billion as made available at the Federation Accounts Allocation (FAAC) meeting in August for the month of July allocation.

Reacting to the walkout by State Commissioners’ of Finance over an outstanding N75 billion expected from NNPC, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, disclosed that efforts are being made to resolve the outstanding issues.

The statement said the OAGF gave the assurance that “FAAC has received assurances from NNPC that the issue is being dealt with dispatch and that a positive outcome is expected soon.”

It also said that the government is exploring all avenues to end the shortfalls in revenue caused by oil theft and vandalisation as soon as possible.

However, the state governments are rejecting the disbursement saying it is embedded with many loopholes.