The Federation
Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting ended in Abuja on
Wednesday night without sharing allocations for the month.
No member of the
committee agreed to talk to journalists on why they left the meeting without allocations to
various tiers of government.
The meeting which was
attended by Commissioners for Finance and Accountants General from the 36
states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, lasted for two
days.
Journalists who waited
for several hours for the usual communique issued from the FAAC secretariat at
the end of such meetings were thoroughly disappointed when information filtered
in that the briefing would not hold.
The spokesperson of
the finance ministry, Hassan Dodo, later told journalists the
briefing for which he issued the invitations has been cancelled.
“Gentlemen of the
Press, I have been directed to inform you that the usual media briefing at the
end of FAAC meetings will not hold. Another date will be communicated to you
when the committee is ready to brief the Press,” Mr Dodo said.
He refused to
take questions from journalists who were anxious to know why the
briefing, which usually presents the details of the allocations to
the three tiers of government, was cancelled on short notice.
All members of the
committee were practically scampering out of the venue of the meeting at the
Ministry Finance auditorium apparently to avoid any contact with
journalists.
The Chairman of the
Commissioners of Finance Forum of FAAC, Mahmoud Yunusa, told reporters they
were breaking to go and consult their principals, the state governors.
He, also, did not say
exactly why the meeting ended the way it did.
However, PREMIUM TIMES
overheard a conversation by one of the commissioners about the outcome of the
meeting.
“The meeting has
ended. But, there is no money to share, because what the NNPC brought was
incomplete. Now we are going for a meeting with the governors on what next to
do,” the commissioner was heard saying.
Since February this
year, FAAC meetings have ended in stalemate, with the inability of the NNPC to
remit enough revenue always cited as reason.
In February,
the meeting, convened to consider and approve statutory
revenue allocations for the month, ended abruptly.
It took the
intervention of the finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, and the vice president,
Yemi Osinbajo, for representatives of the states and the FCT to agree to
reconvene the following day to share the N647.39 billion that was available.
Although NNPC and top
hierarchy of the FAAC, along with finance ministry officials, have
met several times to reconcile the revenue shortfall, no report has been issued
on what was found.
At the end of the FAAC
meeting last month, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mamhoud
Dutse, said the scrutiny by the committee members of the NNPC finances was
normal.
It was not clear
when Wednesday’s meeting would be rescheduled. But, indications are
that after a meeting between the state governors and NNPC officials in a
secret location in Abuja, they may not delay to reconvene
before Friday to enable them pay workers’ salaries for the month.
The NNPC spokesperson,
Ndu Ughamadu, did pick his telephone calls Wednesday night. He did
not also respond to a text message sent to him.
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