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How governors misappropriated N66 billion ecological funds in 18 months
The 36 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have blown off a whopping N66 billion shares of the Ecological and Derivation Fund from the federal allocation, government financial documents have revealed.
The N66 billion, which the governors cannot account for, represents 0.72% of the monthly ecological allocations from the Federation accounts.
The documents revealed that the sharing formula between the three tiers of government is federal 1%; states 0.72% and local government 0.60%.
The National Economic Council (NEC) which comprises mostly of state governors and the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently set up a committee to audit the Federal Government’s 1% share of the Ecological Fund, a development top Presidency sources said was misplaced.
Following the decision of NEC to audit the Federal Government share of the fund, a senior government reveals that it was unusual for the governors to be asking for what doesn’t belong to them.
The source argued that since the three tiers of government federal; state and local government collect their respective shares of the money: federal 1%; state 0.72% and local government 0.60% monthly, from the federation account, it was ridiculous for the states to be asking for the audit of what doesn’t belong to them.
“Everybody has their own share of the money and you cannot now turn around to begin to ask me what I did with my money. Who is asking the state governors what they did with their own 0.72% amounting to N66 billion over the period we are looking at now? So why should they ask the federal what it is doing or has done with its own share? The governors are getting the whole thing wrong and it is a high time that somebody is bold enough to tell them the truth,” the source said.
In a document from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), between June 2015 to November 2016, the Federal Government’s share of the ecological and derivation account was put at N59, 739,105,462.37 billion with a 20% share of the money representing N11,947,821,092.47 (eleven billion, nine hundred and forty seven million, eight hundred and twenty one thousand, ninety two naira) going to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as subvention.
The document further revealed that Abia received N1,464,181,223.15 billion; Adamawa N1,741,945,285.95 billion; Akwa Ibom N2,013,133,471.80; Anambra N1,753,433,514.03; Bauchi N2,043,709,455.97 billion; Bayelsa N1,212,415,348.71 billion; Benue N2,052,165,163.55; Borno N2,172,393,091.42; Cross River N1,646,593,255.42 billion while Delta took home for the period under review N1,850,255,166.55 billion.
Within the period, Ebonyi state received N1,362,831,810.90 billion; Edo N1,566,783,259.42 billion; Ekiti N1,388,978,643.13 billion; Enugu N1,645,035,353.92 billion; Gombe N1,368,708,035.38 billion; Imo N2,647,347,373.77 billion; Jigawa N2,031,867,461.55 billion; Kaduna N2,170,130,310.38 billion; Kano N3,240,466,325.24 billion; Katsina N2,487,712,183.71 billion; Kebbi N1,837,628,118.46 billion; Kogi N1,933,894,890.54; Kwara N1,457,587,823.05 billion; Lagos N2,312, 453, 894.52 billion; Nasarawa N1,411,832,805.73 billion and Niger N985,126,248.47 million.
In the breakdown analysis Ogun took home N1,604,698,087.31 billion; Ondo N1,571,368,044.43 billion; Osun N1,795,149,609.15; Oyo N2,237,194,161.66 billion; Plateau N1,728, 128, 251.85 billion; Rivers N1,935,829,438.16 billion; Sokoto N1,964,880,443.12 billion; Taraba N1,603,799,624.34 billion; Yobe N1,635,637,612.27 billion; Zamfara N1,555,565,062.32 billion while the sum of N274,286,268.95 million was shared among the area councils in the FCT within the period.
“From the breakdown, you can now see that everybody has its own share. And I believe we should be sincere with ourselves in whatever we do so that Nigeria can move forward,” the federal government source said.