By Gift Samuel, The Sight News
Abuja-It is uncertain if civil servants will get their salaries for the month of March before the Easter celebration as the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting did not yield result due to issues in the figures presented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The FAAC meeting which held on Tuesday and was presided over by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Ahmed Idris, was inclusive due to issues around reconciliation of figures.
Briefing the Press after the meeting, the AGF noted that state governments as represented by the Commissioners of finance are very sensitive to the issue but again,the constitution and necessary procedures have to be followed before revenue is distributed.
According to him; “Obviously you are aware that anything to do with the federation revenue is statutory and therefore constitutional and we must always verify our figures to the last long. Failure which we will be committing an illegality and unconstitutionality and it is on that note, we observed some issues on the figures given by one of the major revenue generating agencies namely the NNPC and the committee is of the opinion that until and unless these figures are reconciled, corrected, verified and they are factual, we cannot distribute the revenue as the case is.
“The meeting has not been concluded and we will look at the revenue figure as submitted by the NNPC and reconcile such figures and then sit immediately upon conclusion of that reconciliation and address the matter and share the revenue accordingly.
“We are sensitive to the issue and to the fact that we are approaching festivities. We have in mind that as Civil servants, workers at local, state and federal levels of government they deserve to have their salaries and all other commitments of government” he noted.
Idris expressed certainty that whatever will be distributed finally, will be higher than the previous month.
While noting that the revenue from NNPC came in late, he stressed that until clarity is gotten, nothing will be done.
On his part, the Chairman, Nigeria Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr. Mahmoud Yunusa said the states are not comfortable with the figures presented from NNPC, adding that the figures are supposed to be much more than what was stipulated to be shared.
“This reconciliation will take as minimal time as possible. If you look at the total collection of NNPC, the quantum in terms of volume and sales is very high but what is being remitted is very very unacceptable to us as commissioners of finance in our respective states so that is our stand and our decision.
“We will further sit with the NNPC and ensure that what is due for the federation accounts, gets to the federation account, in order words what is due to Nigerians, gets to Nigerians, that is our focus for now” he said.
