FG, States Share $1b Secretly – Deplete Excess Crude Account to $3m

Posted by admin Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Headlines, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Presidency, Rivers, Sokoto, State News, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara Saturday, January 1st, 2011

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) at an emergency meeting yesterday in Abuja, shared $1billion from the Excess Crude Account.

With the disbursement of the amount, the balance in the ECA account now stands at $3million.

The meeting, which was held behind closed doors, lasted for only 29 minutes (11:10am and ended at about 11:39am).

A breakdown of the amount indicated that while the federal government got $458.31million, the states had $232 million, while the local governments would be credited with $179 million.

The balance of $130 million is expected to be shared to the oil producing states based on the principle of derivation.

Leadership Weekend learnt at the venue of the meeting that the amount was shared following an approval given by the National Economic Council.

It was gathered that pressures from the governors to tackle the huge infrastructure deficit in their states had made President Goodluck Jonathan to give the approval.

The Minister of State for Finance, Hajiya Yabawa Wabi, confirmed the development.

Wabi, who is also the Chairman of FAAC, explained that since the National Assembly had agreed to extend the implementation of the capital budget till March 2011, there was the need to share the amount to allow the states fund more developmental projects across the federation.

She said: “We are here because we got an approval to share $1billion from the ECA to the three tiers of government, and this we are doing because the ECA is a financing item in the 2010 budget of both the federal and state governments.

“As you are aware, the budget year has been extended to March 2011 by the National Assembly and that is why we need to share this amount to form part of the 2010 budget.

“Since only the capital budget was extended to march, the money will only be meant for capital projects. The money was approved by Mr. President. No other money was shared apart from this and the money has already been cash-backed.

“In this regard, the FG had $458.31million, the states will share $232 million and the local government will share $179 million and the derivation states will share $130m.”

Also speaking, the Chairman of Finance Commissioners Forum, Alhaji Rabo Usman, denied the amount being an end of year bonus as widely speculated.

He said: “We have to meet because there is no way we could share money without a meeting of FAAC members. That is why we had to hold this emergency meeting to take care of that decision that was taken by the National Economic Council.

“This money is not an end of year bonus, it is funds that belong to the three tiers of government and the ECA is like a savings and the governors believe that there is need to fund some on-going projects that are taking place both at the federal and state levels.

“So it is normal that the money was taken at this time of the year to fund some of our operations. The ECA is an account that belongs to the three tiers of government and anytime we are in need we have a right to use it to fund projects.”

– Leadership

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