FEDERAL ALLOCATION COUNCIL SUSPENDED OVER UNRESOLVED 115 BILION NAIRA ARREARS

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting where the allocations for July would have been shared,  could not hold at the weekend following an irreconcilable N115 billion arrears accumulated since February. To this effect, it is expected that the workers’ salary for September may be delayed if urgent steps are not taken to reconvene the meeting.

According to the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Lawan Yerima Ngama, the accounts had already been prepared and ready to be disbursed to any state that wants to collect its share without the arrears.

But the finance commissioners, who are the  representatives of the 36 governors, refused to collect the money without the arrears on the grounds that they did not get the mandate of their principals to do so. They argued that it was contrary to their agreement in June.

In ther previous  meeting, it was agreed that because the revenue would not be augmentated again, it was proper to pay all the arrears that accrued since February.

However, the Minister of State still insisted  that the meeting was not deadlocked, saying that the meeting was called off on a friendly note.

According to him, the meeting   was mutually agreed that from August the three tiers of government would begin to share the actual, i.e all the revenues that come in for the month without  augmentation.

He  said that the  Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could not turn in its payment arrears because it  was yet to collect the oil proceeds and remit same to the federation account due to the  fact that revenue from oil sales can only be received after 90 days of sale, a development which the minister said did not go down well with the commissioners of finance.

Ngama, however, expressed optimism that  the non-conclusion of deliberation would not affect workers’ salaries in the states, saying that,  before the end of the week, the  FAAC meeting would be reconvened.

He said the Federal Government  had released N40 billion, being its own arrears  due to the federation account  while the NNPC is being expected to release the N75 billion in its kitty.