Economic Confidential, February 19, 2008

Minister Confirmed Presidential Directive on Dollar Allocation

…LGCs to be Refunded N12.7billion of Primary Health Centre

The Finance Minister of State, Mr. Remi Babalola has confirmed the directive of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on the stoppage of sharing of federal allocations in foreign currency, which Economic Confidential exclusively reported recently.

The minister confirmed the development during his opening remark at the monthly meeting of the Federation Account Allocation meeting today in Abuja. He said that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) wrote the President and Ministry of Finance expressing reservations about the proposed policy on several grounds and advising the President to stop its implementation.

On the new indices for revenue sharing, he said a Committee set up to ensure equity, fairness and due process before implementation, had met several times and recommended that the indices currently in place i.e. the 2006 indices should continue to be applied, while efforts are on to ensure acceptability of the proposed 2007 indices.

Mr. Babalola also disclosed that in an effort to post-review completeness of inflows into the Federation Account and based on presidential directive he has written to the Auditor-General of the Federation to carry out a comprehensive audit of all inflows into the Federation Account towards ascertaining completeness and ensuring integrity of balances in the Account. The Auditor General would also review the Petroleum Subsidy Account towards ensuring that government funds are properly utilized.

The Minister also announced that very soon all the local government councils in the federation would receive as a refund from the sum of N12.7billion being a balance of their contribution to the Primary Health Centre in the last administration.

Other related articles from Economic Confidential:

President Yar’Adua Stops All Payment in Dollars from Federation Account

WINDFALL- Sharing of Excess Crude and Dollarised Allocations

-States May Receive Dollarized Revenue From Federation Account

Nigeria Earned N1.38 Trillion from Excess Crude in 2007