The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FAAC

  • Buhari wades into FAAC, governors deadlock 

    President Muhammadu Buhari has waded into the deadlock of the Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting with governors.
    Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari and the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun briefed State House correspondents after a meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
    Yari said “Initially it was supposed to be private but has turned to be official. We were supposed to hold the Federation Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) meeting since last week which became deadlock. That is why came to discuss with the President.
    “And in further discussion, the Chief of Staff decided to invite the Honourable Minister so that we can discuss further and to know how best we can deal with the issue at hand.
    Asked whether there is any headway now, he said “Yes, there is headway because the President and the Minister of Finance will meet with NNPC officials where the problem is so that we solve it.
    On the break off of R-APC from the APC,  he said “We came here because of the issue of finances. I think the party is in the best position to answer the question. If I comment on it, that means I have not done justice to the leadership of the party.
    Asked if he was not worried about the trend of things, he said that there is no cause for panic.
    “Of course, I have to get worried, but it is something we will control. We should expect this kind of wrangling left, right and centre this time around with the issue parties and elections, moreover in a party that has majority and because of the interests therein. So there is no panic.” he said
    On the fruitfulness of the meeting, Adeosun said “As you know the FAAC meeting was inconclusive last Wednesday and since then we have been having series of engagements between ourselves, governors, the commissioners and the various stakeholders.
    “Today’s meeting was for me to briefed the governors and the chief of staff and by extension the President the progress we have made so far on our position. The President has promised that he is going to take the next step and to that extend we were very successful.

    Read also: http://staging.thenationonlineng.net/buhari-decorates-newly-promoted-cpso/

    Asked if the NNPC finances are not under  the TSA, she said “They are. Every agency is in the TSA. You know FAAC is unique. All the revenue generating agencies make their returns every month in FAAC. And those their returns are net of their expenses. So it is the area of expenses where we have dispute.
    “It is not in the gross revenue. The area of dispute is what has been deducted from the gross revenue to give us the net ,which is brought to the FAAC account.
    “But I think this is a healthy process. We must be satisfied with figures before we sign up. We must as stakeholders ensure that all our agencies are aligned with the programmes of the government in terms of getting this economy really moving. It is more of reconciliations than stand ups. I’m sure we will have the FAAC in the days or so resolved.” she said

  • Blame June salary delay on FAAC, says Bayelsa

    The Bayelsa State Government yesterday told its workers that any delay in payment of their June salaries should be blamed on the the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

    The State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai, said in a statement that the crucial monthly FAAC meeting could not hold following the inability of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to present accurate figures of revenue collected for the month to the committee .

    He said the meeting ended in deadlock because of the discrepancies in the figures presented by the NNPC to FAAC.

    Ebibai explained further that, this inability of the NNPC to present agreeable returns to FAAC was responsible for the lingering delay in holding the June FAAC meeting.

    He said that the Bayelsa State Government was obliged to alert the workers that the problem could result in a slight delay in the payment of salaries in the state.

    Ebibai, however, urged the citizens to show the usual understanding in the event of any delay in salary payment, adding that the government had always given priority to the prompt payment of salaries to its workers.

    He added that the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson holds workers in high esteem and always appreciates their efforts and contributions to the development of the state.

    According to him, efforts were being intensified to prevail on the NNPC to present acceptable figures to FAAC, in order to resolve the stalemate.

    He said: “As a responsible government, we have always demonstrated a deep consciousness of our responsibilities to our workers and other citizens of our great state. This, we have done over the years with prompt payment of salaries to our workers.

    “However, we feel obliged to inform our citizens that, the unfortunate delay in holding the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting for the month of June may result in a slight delay in the payment of salaries.

    “We wish to advise our workers not to panic as FAAC is making efforts to prevail on the NNPC to provide accurate figures of returns to resolve this stalemate. We seek the understanding of our dear citizens on this issue which we believed would be resolved soon.”

     

  • Governors wanted N40b after collecting N147b – NNPC

    The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC ), on Thursday cried out over how state Governors insisted that the corporation must remit additional N40 billion after paying N147 billion to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC ) for the month of June this year.

    The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, who broke the news in a message to journalists, described the situation as “very unfortunate considering that NNPC is exiting the cash call phenomenon.”

    According to him, the agreement the NNPC has with the governors is that FAAC be given N112 billion monthly.

    Read Also: Buhari intervenes in FAAC, NNPC feud

    This , he said, however, will be subject to sufficient funds from sales of domestic crude oil allocation for the corresponding month after meeting cash call obligations on JVs, deductions of PMS cost under recovery and pipeline maintenance.

    He noted that “Incidentally, due to the posture of governors, the NNPC was able to raise 147 billion Naira this month(June) for the Governors by taking from the amount meant for settling cash call obligations.

    “Sadly, however, the Governors wanted additional 40 billion Naira.”

  • Buhari intervenes in FAAC, NNPC feud

    President Muhammadu Buhari has offered to intervene in the disagreement between the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).  This disagreement had frequently disrupted the monthly Federation Allocation disbursements.

    It was gathered from sources present at the meeting that the present logjam in the monthly disbursements was as a result of NNPC’s inability to fund the account.This has been reoccurring for months now such that the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, at some point had to step in to plead with the state governments to extend the olive branch to NNPC.

    For several months running, the body of state commissioners of finance have angrily walked out of successive FAAC meeting because of NNPC’s inability to reconcile accounts and and fund the FAAC Account.

    A source at the FAAC meeting yesterday said: “The whole thing revolves around NNPC’s irreconcilable account but, President Buhari has intervened. I have no idea when the next FAAC meeting will hold but this depends on the outcome of intervention by Mr. President.”

    The monthly FAAC meeting for sharing accruals to the Federation Account to the three tiers of government usually holds between 18 and 20 of every month. However, officials of Federal Ministry of Finance were not forthcoming with any explanation as to when the next FAAC meeting will hold.

    Reporters had gathered at the  Finance Ministry’s auditorium, venue of the FAAC meeting as early as 4pm yesterday after being invited to cover the meeting.

     

  • FAAC meeting ends in deadlock

    The monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting ended in a deadlock on Wednesday in Abuja.

    The FAAC monthly meeting is the forum where money is shared among the federal, states and local governments ended with participants wearing long faces.

    Mr Mahmoud Yunusa, Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners of FAAC, who declined to be interviewed, said in passing that they were going back to confer with the state governors.

    However, Mr Hassan Dodo, Director Press, Ministry of Finance, said the meeting would reconvene before the end of the week.

    NAN reports that for some months now FAAC participants  have been experiencing difficulties in agreeing with figures because of revenue remittance discrepancies.

    This is largely attributed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) not remitting all revenue accrued within the month.

    The corporation has been accused of dishonouring its statutory obligations to the federation account over time. (NAN)

  • FAAC’s April disbursements dip by N20b

    • Excess Crude Account slumps to $1.8b

    The three tiers of government yesterday lost N20 billion at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja.

    At the end of the March meeting the federal, state and local governments shared N626.82 billion representing statutory allocation, Value Added Tax (VAT) and foreign exchange equalisation as disbursements for April.

    Addressing reporters at the end of the rescheduled FAAC meeting, Accountant-General of the Federation Ahmed Idris said the figure was N20 billion lower than N647.39 billion shared in March.

    Speaking about the postponement of the meeting earlier, the AGF said FAAC members rejected the revenue figures declared by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) but that there was ongoing reconciliation of NNPC revenue figures for February.

    Ahmed Idris also disclosed that the Excess Crude Account (ECA) dipped from $2.3 billion to $1.830 billion after $496 million had been deducted for the purchase of Tucano military airplanes from the U.S.

    At the end of the meeting, the Federal Government received N263.102 billion, while States governments went home with N167.511 billion and Local Government Areas were given N126.293 billion.

    N54.518 billion was shared as 13 per cent mineral revenue to oil producing states, while the cost of collection of N15.402 billion was given to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    In further breakdown, the gross statutory revenue of N480.599 received was lower than N557.943 billion received in the previous month by N77.344 billion.

    Crude oil export sales volume decreased by 13 per cent when compared with 5.42 million barrels recorded the previous month and thus reduced earnings by $33.58 million

     

     

     

  • FAAC postpones meeting again

    The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) session was adjourned yesterday on account of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failure to remit accurate returns to Federation Account.

    Last month, FAAC was adjourned to enable proper reconciliation of NNPC account after a short payment of N100 billion was discovered in its payment to Federation Account.

    Chairman, Finance Commissioners Forum Mallam Yunusa Mahmoud confirmed FAAC postponement  to reporters last night.

    He described the postponement as “an unfortunate development that prompted the governors and finance minister’s intervention.”

    He said: “We have some challenges; the figures we have gotten is far less of what we expected to be remitted by NNPC. As it is now, there is a meeting between the governors and the top management of NNPC at the villa. I believe this is a very high level deliberation and something good will come out of it.

    “NNPC is duty bound to carry FAAC stakeholders along in its business; anything short of transparency in its account rendition would elicit questions.”

  • FAAC: Fed Govt, states, local govts share N647.39b

    The federal, state and local governments shared the sum of N647.39 billion from the Federation Account.

    This raises hope that workers at this three tiers of government would receive  this month’s salaries before Easter break.

    The money was the revenue collection for the month of February 2018 which was approved at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting of yesterday.

    The meeting, which was presided over by Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, was attended by a representative of the Permanent Secretary and Director of Home Finance in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Olubunmi Siyanbola. Others are the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris; Chairman of Finance Commissioners’ Forum and Adamawa State Commissioner for Finance, Hon. Mahmoud Yenusa; States’ Commissioners of Finance and Accountant-Generals, and representatives of revenue generating agencies.

    Adeosun, who spoke to reporters at the end of the meeting, said the N647.39 billion distributed to the three tiers of government was N11.836 billion higher than the N635.554 billion shared in the previous month.

    Statutory revenue accounted for N557.943 billion of the total revenue distributed yesterday while Value Added Tax (VAT) accounted for the balance of N89.447 billion.

    The total revenue shared in the previous month was made up of statutory revenue of N538.908 billion and VAT of N96.646 billion.

    On the states’ dispute with the revenue paid by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into the Federation Account,  Mrs Adeosun said FAAC would reconcile the revenue figures with the top management of the Corporation led by the Group Managing Director, Mr. Maikanti Baru.

    “The NNPC is a major channel of our mineral revenue. Some issues have been raised by the states on the revenue paid into the Federation Account by NNPC.

    “These are being looked into and within the next 48 hours, we will be a joint meeting with the NNPC Group Managing Director to address the concerns of the states. The reconciliation of the revenue figures is part of a healthy process to ensure transparency and accountability,” Adeosun said.

    Hon. Yenusa explained that the reconvening of the meeting had become necessary to enable states pay workers their salaries before the Easter break.

  • FAAC deadlock: Adeosun calls emergency meeting with Baru

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun said she is meeting with the NNPC GMD over discrepancies in payment into the Federation Account.

    This is coming after the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on Tuesday was inconclusive due to discrepancies of about N37.76 billion in revenue presented by the NNPC.

    Adeosun, who is also the Chairman of FAAC, said she called for an emergency meeting next week with the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Maikanti Baru and other key management staff over revenue payment into the Federation Account.

    The Minister, in a statement made available to newsmen by her Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Oluyinka Akintunde assured Nigerians that the FAAC meeting would hold on Wednesday at 9. a. m.

    She said that the Accountant General of the Federation, Commissioners of Finance and Accountant-Generals of the 36 States would also be present at the meeting.

    Similarly, she said that other representatives of the NNPC, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Department of Petroleum Resources would also be at the meeting. (NAN)

  • FAAC: states abort meeting over N37.76bn shortage in NNPC’s revenue

    The monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, which began on Tuesday was inconclusive due to discrepancies of about N37.76 billion in revenue presented by the NNPC.

    The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris told newsmen in Abuja, that the meeting was inconclusive because of irregularities in figures presented by the NNPC.

    “Obviously, you are all aware that anything that has to do with federation revenue is statutory and, therefore, constitutional and we must always verify our figures to the last kobo.

    “Failing to do so will amount to committing illegality and unconstitutionality.

    “It is on this note that we observe some issues in the figures given by one of the major revenue generating agencies namely the NNPC.

    “The committee is of the opinion that until and unless these figures are reconciled, corrected, verified and factual; we cannot distribute the revenue as the case is.

    “Let me again be quick to inform Nigerians that we are sensitive with the issue and to the fact that state governments may find it difficult without this money.

    “But we have to follow the constitution and the laws for distribution of revenue,’’ he said.

    Also, the Chairman, Forum of FAAC Commissioner, Mr Mahmoud Yunusa, said the forum rejected the amount presented by the NNPC because it was far lower than what was projected for the month.

    He argued that if the NNPC could not surpass what they presented in February, then they should not present anything less than what they presented the previous months.

    “We started this meeting last week and NNPC did not submit their figures until yesterday (Monday), which we were not able to review until this morning.

    “This morning when we were reviewing the figures as presented by the NNPC, it came as a great surprise to see that the amount was less than N100 billion.

    “So we (states) decided that we will not collect the amount presented,

    “We are contesting the figures because pipeline vandalism has reduced, while crude oil prices have continued to go up.

    “On this note, we are wondering why the nation cannot raise enough money through that sector to share to states so that everyone can pay workers, contractors and so on.

    “We are well aware that this development may affect the payment of salaries in states, but we cannot hurriedly accept this money and then later cry foul play.

    “So, we should all be patient. But we hope that with this latest development, NNPC will do the needful as soon as possible,’’ he said.

    Meanwhile, in a document obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the NNPC paid in N74.06 billion into the federation account as oil revenue generated in the month of February, to be shared in March.

    “Compared to the collection of N111.84 billion in Jan. 2018, the February collection of N74.06 billion is lower by N37. 76 billion or 33 per cent.

    “We were unable to meet the approved budget as a result of low collection from Concession Rentals and Petroleum Sharing Contracts (PSC) Royalty.

    “We wish to note that the sum of N30.5 million for the Misc Oil revenue and N6.11 million for Gas Flared are on transit at the end of Feb. 2018.

    “Furthermore, we received 16. 56 million dollars out of the 85.94 million dollars expected from PSC and MCA lifting for the month under review, therefore leaving 68.65 million dollars as outstanding,’’ NNPC said. (NAN)