Federation Account – Channels Television

FG’s Deductions From Federation Account For Police Trust Fund Unlawful, Court Rules

File photo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The Federal High Court in Abuja has barred the Federal Government from deducting funds from the Federation Account to fund the Nigerian Police force and other agencies not listed in the constitution.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court on Wednesday declared the deductions as unconstitutional and ordered that all money deducted from the Federation Account belonging to Rivers State be refunded to the state.

He made the pronouncement in a judgement on a suit filed by the Rivers State Government against the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice; the Accountant General of the Federation; the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, and Federal Ministry of Finance.

The Rivers State Government through its Attorney General had approached the court wherein it sought an order stopping the deduction of funds from the Federation Account for the funding of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund scheme.

The Rivers State Government had challenged the constitutionality and validity of section 4(1)(a) and section 4(1)(b) of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act 2019, which permit the deduction of 0.5 percent of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account and be paid to the Nigeria Police Trust Fund.

The State Government had contended that it was not the responsibility of the State governments but that of the Federal Government to fund the Police.

Delivering judgment, Justice Mohammed agreed with the Rivers State Government that by virtue of Section 162 (3) of the Nigerian Constitution, funds standing to the credit of the Federation Account can only be distributed among the Federal Government, State Governments and Local Government Councils in each State of Nigeria and not directly to any agency of the Federal Government including the Nigeria Police Force.

Consequently, the court declared the section of the law “permitting the direct deduction of any sum or percentage of revenue accruing to the Federation Account or which ought to have been paid into the Federation Account for the purpose of providing funds for the Nigeria Police Trust Fund” as “unconstitutional, null and void.”

According to the court, Rivers State will be the only beneficiary from the deduction and not the 35 states.

No Money Missing From Federation Account – Auditor-General

A file photo of the Auditor-General for the Federation, Aghughu, Adolphus.

Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation on Thursday said no money is missing from the Federation account.

This was contained in a clarification note released by the AuGF’s press unit.

“The Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF), Mr Aghughu Adolphus A., JP, FCNA, FCTI wishes to state unequivocally that the “Unsubstantiated balances of N4.97tr” mentioned in his address during submission of his Annual Report on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December, 2019 to the Clerk to the National Assembly on 18th August , 2021 was not misappropriation of funds as misrepresented in certain section of both print and electronic media,” the clarification note said.

“For avoidance of the doubt, the AuGF states ‘The materiality was determined in the context of the likely errors and unsubstantiated balances amounting to N4.97tr noted in the course of the audit which was above the materiality level of N89.34bn set for the audit, among others.’

“This statement was made as one of the basis for his qualified opinion. The qualified opinion notwithstanding, the FGN Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December, 2019 was true and fair.

“The general public should be guided by the above clarifications as no money is missing from the Federation Account of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

States Sue Malami Over Remittance Of Recovered Funds

File photo of the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami

The 36 states of the country have filed a suit at the Supreme Court against the Federal Government on the status of recovered funds and failure to remit same to the federation account.

Through their Attorneys-General, who are listed as plaintiffs in the suit, the 36 states instituted the action against the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

In the suit, the plaintiffs are seeking a declaration by the provisions of 162 (1) and Section 162(10) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), all income, returns, proceeds, or receipts derived from confiscated, forfeited and/or recovered assets constitute revenue must be remitted to the federation account for the collective benefit of the Federal, State and Local Governments.

Amongst other things, they are also seeking a declaration that the failure and/or refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Finance, the office of the AGF, and the Accountant-General of the Federation, and all her relevant authorities and/or agencies of the federation to remit the receipts, income, returns or proceeds derived from all assets recovered, seized, confiscated and forfeited into the federation account to be distributed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution” is unconstitutional.”

They also asked the court to declare that “it is unconstitutional for the President, through the federal Minister of Finance, the AGF, or any other authority whatsoever, to utilise, apply, allocate, expend and appropriate same to itself or distribute same in any other manner howsoever without due allocation from the federation.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana who filed the suit in June on behalf of the 36 states told Channels Television that the Supreme Court is yet to give a date for the hearing of the suit.

Federation Account: FG, States, LGs Share N647.35bn For January

The Federal Government, States and Local Government Councils have shared a total of N647.353 billion from the Federation Account Revenue for January 2020.

This was disclosed in a statement on Wednesday by the Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Henshaw Ogubike.

According to Mrs Ogubike, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), in a meeting chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse disbursed the funds to the three tiers of government.

FAAC confirmed that for the month of January 2020, there was a significant increase in Import Duty revenue while Companies Income Tax(CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT), Oil and Gas Royalties and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) recorded decreases.

It stated that from the total revenue of N647.353 billion, the Federal Government received N267.389 billion, the State Governments received N176.923 billion, and the Local Government Councils received N132.944 billion.

The statement read in part that the “N647.353 billion comprised Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Exchange Gain, Non-Oil Revenue and Excess Bank Charges recovered.”

It added that the balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at February 19, 2020, was $71.814 million.

Oil Producing States received N46.197 billion as 13% derivation revenue and the Revenue Generating Agencies received N23.900 billion as cost of revenue collection.

The statement gave a breakdown of the distribution from the gross statutory revenue of N525.253 billion; the Federal Government received N243.704 billion, the State Governments received N123.610 billion and the Local Government Councils received N95.298 billion.

Also, the Oil Producing States received N46.074 billion as 13% derivation revenue and the Revenue Collecting Agencies received N16.567 billion as cost of collection.

“From the Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N104.758, the Federal Government received N14.614 billion, the State Governments received N48.713 billion, the Local Government Councils received N34.099 billion and the Revenue Generating Agencies received N7.333 billion as cost of revenue collection.”

Meanwhile, from the Exchange Gain revenue of N1.044 billion, “the Federal Government received N0.485 billion, the State Governments received N0.246 billion, and the Local Government Councils got N 0.190 billion and the oil-producing States got N0.123 billion as 13% derivation revenue.”

Non-Oil revenue of N16.298 billion, the Federal Government got N8.586 billion, the State Governments got N4.355 billion, the Local Government Councils got N3.357 billion.

Kwara Assembly Recommends Suspension Of 16 LG Chairmen

Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Salihu Danladi

The Kwara State House of Assembly has recommended the suspension of 16 Local Government council chairmen over alleged embezzlement of N33 billion.

This followed a resolution of the House after it considered a petition written by one Seidu Aliyu and presented at plenary on Monday.

The House leader, Abubakar Olawoyin, tabled the petition, which was unanimously considered after a debate, prompting the lawmakers to recommend the suspension of the local government councils.

According to the petitioner, the council chairmen had mismanaged and misappropriated the said sum received from the Federation Accounts in the last two years.

Subsequently, the House leader called for a thorough investigation of the council chairmen in view of the alleged misconduct.

In his submission, a member representing Ipaye/Malete/Oloru constituency, Babatunde Paku, said the House had been inundated with reports over alleged fraudulent activities in the third tier of government in the last two years.

Similarly, another member from Afon constituency, Abdulwahab Opakunle, urged the House to look into the matter critically since the lawmakers represent the interest of the people.

Also speaking, a member representing Ojomu/Balogun constituency of Offa Local Government Area, Saheed Popoola, said there was a need to properly investigate the alleged financial impropriety against the council authorities, adding that local government chairmen are public officers, and thus accountable to the people.

Salaudeen Ganiyu of Omupo constituency moved a motion for the suspension of the council chairmen pending the outcome of the investigation and was seconded by Awolola Olumide of Isin constituency.

Reading the resolution, the Speaker, Salihu Danladi, urged Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to suspend all the local government chairmen in the state to allow proper investigation of their alleged mismanagement of council funds in the last two years.

He referred the petition to the joint house committees on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Ethics, Privileges and Judiciary, asking the committees to report back in the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, the House has announced the composition of its various standing committees.

The speaker, who made the announcement at the plenary, said the committees would be formally inaugurated in due course.

He challenged the committees to exhibit dedication and commitment while carrying out their assignments.

FAAC: Monthly Allocation Increases By 13 Billion Naira

The federal allocation committee says monthly allocation to the three tiers of government has increased by 13 billion naira from the month of December, 2016.

Speaking with journalists after the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said that a total of 400 billion naira has been disbursed to the federal, state and local government level for the month of December.

Mrs Adeosun said that the sum of 248 billion naira gross statutory revenue received, is higher by 8 billion naira compared with the 240 billion naira received in the month of November, 2016.

The Minister further explained that there was a revenue decline of 65 million dollars in federation export sales due to a drop in the volume of crude oil export of 1.390 million barrels.

Bayelsa Govt. Declares 3.5bn Naira As Unspent Funds

The Bayelsa State government has disclosed that it has unspent funds of 3.5 billion naira as at the end of November 2016.

Deputy Governor of the State, Mr John Jonah, noted that the said amount has brought to an end five months of deficit.

Mr Jonah made the remarks on Thursday during a monthly transparency media briefing at the Government House in Yenegoa, the state’s capital.

He also revealed that Bayelsa State recorded 160.4 million naira deficit balance in October.

The Deputy Governor said the government got refunds from the bond loan of 4.75 billion naira, as well as 97.67 million naira refunds from local government which increased the amount available for spending to 14.7 billion naira.

Jonah said the state received 11.6 billion naira as gross inflow from the Federation Account.

Bayelsa Launches Website To Aid Financial Transparency

The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Rear Admiral John Jonah, has dispelled rumours in the state that Bayelsa State got the sum of 19 billion Naira from the federation account for the month of July.

He revealed that the exact amount available for spending in the state after all the deductions is N3,502,822,482.66.

According to him, because of the harsh economic situation the state is currently undergoing that has led to civil servants receiving half of their monthly salary, some persons who he described as mischief makers have seized the opportunity to misinform the public.

He said “While we acknowledge that there has been a sharp increase from the latest allocation as compared to previous months especially for this year, we want to for the benefit of hindsight make public the authentic details of the amount from the various sources.”

He provided a breakdown of the declared figures as follows:

SOURCE AMOUNT

Statutory Allocation N2, 310,274,788.13
13 percent derivation N3, 126,869,735.56
Value Added Tax N609, 108,530.22
Exchange Gain N1, 189,970,982.76

GROSS TOTAL N7, 236,224,036.67

FAAC Deductions N2, 308, 843,297.75
Net FAAC Receipt N4, 927,380,738.92
Local Debt Service N1, 424,558,256.26

NET TOTAL N3, 502,822,482.66 .

To ensure absolute transparency in the financial activities of the state a website was launched.

The website is www.bayelsawatch.org.

NEITI Says NNPC Yet To Remit $3.8bn To Federation Account

An audit report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries and Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is accusing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of refusing to remit 3.8billion dollar and 358.3billion Naira to the federation in 2013.

The Minister of Solid Minerals and Chairman of the NEITI board, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said that the audit showed that total revenue flows into the federation account from the oil and gas sector in 2013 was about $58.07 billion.

This represents about 8% decline when compared to the $62.9 billion realised in 2012.

Fayemi said that the decline was attributed to the drop in oil and gas sales following divestment of federation equity in some oil mining leases (OMLs), crude oil losses as a result of destruction of production facilities, pipelines vandalism and crude oil theft.

NNPC Releases March 2016 Report

Nigeria’s state oil corporation, the NNPC has released its March 2016 report.

The report shows annual operating deficit down 32% to three billion naira in January 2016, and expenditure also slimmer at 134.4 billion naira in January from 196.2 billion naira in December last year.

The new report shows the NNPC revenue down to 130.8 billion naira in January this year due to low crude prices.

The corporation says the sum of 85.9 billion naira was paid into the federation account and for the 12 months ended January 2016, the total contribution to the federal government was 1.05 trillion naira.

In December 2015, the NNPC reports total crude oil lifting of 65.95 million barrels by the corporation, the joint venture partners and independent operators.

Governor Bello Presents 74.7 Billion Naira Budget For 2016

Niger State Governor, Mr Abubakar Bello, on Thursday presented a total budget proposal of 74.7 billion Naira to the State House of Assembly for the 2016 fiscal year.

The Governor, who highlighted the fall in oil price, claimed it had huge negative impact on the economy of the state.

“We are all aware of the effect of the continuous fall in the price of crude oil in the international market and its negative impact on the economy of the country and the States that depend heavily on allocation from the Federation Account,” he said.

While presenting the budget to the members of the House of Assembly, Governor Bello said that the budget was prepared to restore the confidence of the people, even as education had the highest budget estimate.

He further said that the budget which comprises of a proposed recurrent expenditure of 39,501,796,081 Naira, capital expenditure of 242,355,052 Naira, would be financed through Statutory Allocation of 35,792,212,748 Naira, Value Added Tax (VAT) of 9,871,299,803 Naira, Internally Generated Revenue of 9,391,164,232 Naira and capital receipts of 19,689,474,347 Naira.

Bello assured members of the House that the budget would be used judiciously.

He added that the government had budgeted to spend 4.29 billion Naira on Education, 3.59 billion Naira in Infrastructural Development, 2.61 billion Naira in Health, 2.53 billion Naira in Agriculture and Rural development; 2.38 billion Naira in Water Resources.

He further said that the budget would focus on wealth and job creation through Youth Empowerment Programmes, agricultural development, construction, upgrading and rehabilitation of health facilities and services, completion of all on-going road projects and construction of new roads, completion of inherited abandoned Water and electricity projects, renovation of schools using the whole-school development approach and improvement and enhancement of Internal Revenue Generation.

The governor further stated that the State Government intends to obtain a N5 billion Bond to address income generating projects that will support additional Internally Generated Revenue and contribute to the repayment of the bond to cushion the cost of repayment.

The Governor stated that his administration will do its best to restore confidence in the management of its finances stressing that bold steps will be taken to alleviate the sufferings of the people.

The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Honorable Ahmed Marafa, in his address, urged the executive to intensify its efforts at blocking leakages and avenues for wastage, while calling for the immediate implementation of the Treasury Single Account system in the state.

The budget tagged ‘Budget of Restoration’ is 6 billion Naira less than the 2015 Budget estimated at 80.81 billion Naira.

NNPC Pays $607.8M To Federal Account

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has opened its books for public scrutiny.

In the current report published by the management of the corporation, a total of 607.8 million Dollars is said to have been paid into the Federation Account this year.

A further breakdown indicated that the total export Crude Oil and Gas receipts for the period of January to August 2015 is 3.420 billion Dollars.

Of the total amount, the sum of $0.61bn was remitted to the Federation Account while the balance-$2.81bn- was said to have been used to fund the JV cash call for the period.

This report is in line with the earlier promise made by the NNPC Group Managing Director, Ibe Kachikwu, to make all spending and revenue public .

Tag: Federation Account

FG’s Deductions From Federation Account For Police Trust Fund Unlawful, Court Rules

No Money Missing From Federation Account – Auditor-General

States Sue Malami Over Remittance Of Recovered Funds

Federation Account: FG, States, LGs Share N647.35bn For January

Kwara Assembly Recommends Suspension Of 16 LG Chairmen

FAAC: Monthly Allocation Increases By 13 Billion Naira

Bayelsa Govt. Declares 3.5bn Naira As Unspent Funds

Bayelsa Launches Website To Aid Financial Transparency

NEITI Says NNPC Yet To Remit $3.8bn To Federation Account

NNPC Releases March 2016 Report

Governor Bello Presents 74.7 Billion Naira Budget For 2016

NNPC Pays $607.8M To Federal Account

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