The rescheduled meeting of the
Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Tuesday again ended in
another stalemate.
An
official told reporters the meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday to
attempt to broker a resolution, even as civil servants across the country are
going into the second week without June salaries.
This is the second time the meeting would end in confusion since
June 27 when the initial schedule for the month ended without members agreeing
to share the revenue brought for distribution by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).
Members
of the committee, consisting of Commissioners for Finance and Accountants
General from the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, had accused the NNPC of
not remitting enough revenue for sharing.
No communique was read at the end of the meeting as members
hurried out from the finance ministry auditorium venue of the meeting.
The
chairman of the Commissioners of Finance Forum of FAAC, Mahmoud Yunusa, simply
told reporters that members were breaking for consultation with their principals,
the state governors.
The following day, the NNPC spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, in a
statement said the N147 billion revenue remitted to FAAC for sharing to the
three tiers of government in June was “in line with the terms of agreement it
had with governors on the matter.”
Ughamadu
said the agreement NNPC had with the governors was for the corporation to make
a monthly remittance of N112 billion only to FAAC.
He
clarified that the remittance was subject to sufficient funds from its sale of
domestic crude oil allocation for the corresponding month after meeting certain
operational obligations.
These
included payment for cash call on Joint Venture (JVs), deductions for cost
under recovery for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and pipeline maintenance.
The
NNPC spokesperson said the NNPC was able to surpass the terms of agreement with
the governors on the monthly remittance for June by about N35 billion.
Since
then, reports were that the committee has been holding accounts reconciliation
meeting with the top management of the NNPC, finance ministry officials,
Accountant General of the Federation and representatives of the commissioners
of finance forum.
However, after hours of the rescheduled meeting at the
auditorium of the finance miinistry, members came out without any pronouncement
of a resolution.
At
about 7.30 p.m., on Tuesday, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed
Idris, led other officials from his office and the finance ministry out of the
venue of the meeting without a word to journalists on the outcome of the
meeting.
Mr
Idris kept a straight face as he led his team in the direction of the office of
the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on the 7th floor of the building
apparently to brief her on the outcome of the meeting.
Not
long after, NNPC representatives at the meeting also left the venue of the
meeting and headed towards their cars.
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