ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Presidency has over ruled the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who told State House correspondents, Monday that Federation Account Allocating Committee (FAAC) was to share the sum of $1.7 billion (N391 billion) from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).
Idris had told newsmen that what was left in the ECA was $1.6 to $1.7 billion and that it was going to be shared among the three tiers of government based on approved formula as agreed in the last National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.
Asked what he met in the account, Idris said, “It is hovering between $1.6 to $1.7 billion, and that is what we are going to distribute among all the three tiers of governments, the federal, states and local governments based on the approved formula.”
But reacting to the report on Tuesday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, described as incorrect that funds would be drawn from the Excess Crude Account for the relief package approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for states and local governments.
Adesina said, “For the purpose of greater clarity on the matter, the measures approved by President Buhari to deal with the problem of unpaid public sector salaries in many states are as follows:
*The sharing of the $2.1 Billion dividend paid to the Federation Account by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG);
* A Central Bank-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging from N250 billion to N300 billion. This will be a soft loan available to states for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries; and
*A debt relief programme designed by the Debt Management Office which will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660 billion, and extend the life span of such loans while reducing their debt-servicing expenditures.
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“The measures approved by President Buhari definitely do not include drawing down the remaining balance in the Excess Crude Account or the “liquidation” of the account as some media outlets have wrongly reported.
“No such decision has been taken or approved by President Buhari, and last week’s meeting of the National Economic Council clearly concluded that the Excess Crude Account should be left untouched at this time”.
