Immediate past Commissioner for Finance in Oyo State, Mr. Zaccheus Adeniyi Adelabu has accused the Federal Government of “poor fiscal management” saying this is the bane of the dwindling federally collected revenue accruing to the Federation Account.
The ex-Commissioner threw the bombshell in Ibadan yesterday while delivering the 2013 Press Week anniversary lecture of the Nigeria Union of journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council, entitled “Dwindling Federation Allocation and the Challenges of Grassroots Development – Ways Out.”
While submitting that the challenges of grassroots development are enormous without adequate funding, the former Commissioner lamented that “the Federal Government wants to abandon the revenue framework upon which the 2013 budget was prepared.”
Mr. Adelabu who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Finance, Mr. David Olatunde remarked that the Federal Government’s insistence that the Federal Allocation would only be shared on the basis of amount actually earned rather than what is budgeted following its (FG’s) allegation of persistent decline in the gross federally collected revenue accruing to the Federastion Account, was unacceptable since the unfolding national fiscal realities had revealed that “the shortfall is as a result of poor management.”
According to the former Commissioner, “the revenue profile of the Federation as painted by the Honourable Minister of State for Finance is incorrect and amounts to a gross distortion of facts and empirical data of revenue accruing to the Federation Account.”
His words: “Specifically, while the Minister put the revenue earned in the month of July 2013 at N397.98 billion, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) economic report for the same period stated that revenue from oil rose by 0.2 per cent to N645.65billion, while gross non-oil receipt (corporate taxes, custom and ecise duties and custom’s special duties) was put at N404.53billion, a total of N1090.18Bn revenue which was higher than the budget estimate of N702.54billion approved by the National Assembly for July 2013.
“The attention of unsuspecting public is drawn to the key outstanding and recurring issues with revenue into the Federation Account Allocation Committee since 2011 especially the failure of NNPC to fully account and remit proceeds of all exports into the Federation Account.
“The questions that needs to be asked and answered includes the following: *Is the N2,983 Trillion held back by NNPC not part of the revenue earned into the Federation Account meant for the three tiers of government?
*Why is the FGN not demanding full remittance into the Federation Account by NNPC and who are the people profiting from the fund held by NNPC in foreign account through delayed remittance and / or non remittance to the Federation Account in most of the cases listed above.
*Why are there such serious issues of substantial noncompliance with the 2013 Budget and non-adherence to disbursement agreed at regular monthly FAAC meetings.”
