FAAC: Lagos, Delta, Plateau, Cross River, others groan over late disbursement of federal allocations

Many state governors are lamenting over the delayed execution of capital projects in their states due to disagreements between the Federal and state governments over the remittance of financial allocation due the states.

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, lamented the cash crunch in the state saying the delay in remittances by the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has continued to take its toll on completion of some major projects in the state.

Fashola whose state is the commercial nerve centre of the country said though his government has recorded 70 per cent in the third quarter's performance of its 2013 budget, 'there is a lot of work that have been completed that we have not paid for. The core reason for that is the revenue shortfall we have been experiencing and delay in revenue that is coming from the Federal Government'.

While briefing the media on the quarterly review of budget performance at Alausa, Ikeja, yesterday said, the performance represented a slight dip in the overall aggregate of 72 per cent mid-year to 71 per cent. He said, 'I think over two months now (between August and September), the FAAC payment did not come on time. The augmentation also did not come on time. As far as I am aware, not all of it has probably come from last report that I got. So, it distorts our plans.

'We hope that things will look upward and positive in the final quarter. We expect that as a country, we cannot continue to have this distortion in revenue collection and projection where the largest source of revenue comes from a single item. If we are reporting some of the excuses that we heard, 400,000 barrels of oil is being stolen. The story does not change. Some of the questions really are: Is it a fixed amount of oil being stolen every month? Even if oil thieves do not change, is it still the same amount? We need to look at this thing more rigorously.

Similarly, in Abia State, government sources confirmed that 'the failure of FAAC to fulfill its financial obligations to the federating units is actually affecting the state. As a result, the state has been experiencing some financial hiccups. It has led to salaries of the state workers being delayed. Also, government activities have generally slowed down with Governor Theodore Orji  and his officials limiting themselves to running the government with internally generated revenue.

Meanwhile, the Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan  had complained loudly about the financial allocation.

In his address at a lecture marking the second anniversary of the fifth Assembly of the Delta State House of Assembly, tagged 'Legislative Issues in Fiscal Federalism in Nigeria',  Governor Uduaghan lamented that 'States have to go to Abuja and struggle and beg for what is due to them. I am sure many of you know my thought on the issue of fiscal federalism especially as somebody from the oil producing area.'

In the same vein, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River state in a letter to the state House of Assembly stated that 'arising from shortages in projected revenue, certain revisions have been proposed for some capital projects and programmes to enhance the completion of some critical projects as some of these projects/programmes have been for upward/downward adjustments. Expenditure on infrastructure was slashed from N800m to N700m while the rural electrification projects were also slashed from N3bn to N750m.'

Although the state has been able to pay salaries regularly, it has been unable to to meet its financial obligations in the last three months. Consequently, the Cross River State government  has been compelled to review the 2013 annual budget and also requested the State House of Assembly to release N800 million from the State Emergency Reserve funds.

It was gathered that though the State may not be said to be 'broke in the sense of the word, but we are experiencing very severe cash challenges and many obligations are not being fulfilled by the state because of the short fall in allocation from the Federal Government.'

Governor Imoke in his letter to the state House of Assembly noted that, printing of revised secondary education textbooks was slashed from N300m to N200m. He said, while 'comprehensive renovation of 40 primary schools was also reviewed downwards from N900m to N650m and comprehensive renovation of 60 secondary schools was slashed from N750m to N250m. The governor also urged the State Assembly to approve a request for the release of N800 million from the State Emergency Reserve Funds to expedite work at the State Polytechnic under construction at Ugep, in the central senatorial district of the state.

The Plateau state Commissioner for Information and Communication,Yiljap Abraham, said, 'Naturally, the non disbursement of federal funds affects all aspects of cashflow such as salaries and wages, contractual obligations, handling of security problems and the smooth running of government at all levels.'

Yiljap addeded that  four local governments have defaulted in staff salaries.

The failure of FAAC to fulfill its financial obligations to the federating units caused delay in the September salary payment in Kogi State. Unlike before when civil servants receive their salaries between 26th and 28th of the month; this time the State workers had to wait till the second week of October before receiving alerts. - Vanguard.