HoR to monitor FAAC allocations, utilisation
By Tom Okpe
The House of Representatives has mandated its relevant Committees to look into States’ spending and utilisation of the increased allocation from the Federal Account allocation Committee (FAAC) to sub-nationals.
This is due to an adoption of a motion brought under matters of ‘Urgent National Importance,’ sponsored by Rep Ademorin Kuye, (APC, Lagos) at plenary on Tuesday.
Presenting the motion, Kuye said the amount shared by the Federal, States and Local Governments from FAAC has increased significantly, due to withdrawal of fuel subsidy, floating of the Naira and other economic policies, unanimously introduced by the Government.
According to him, States and LGAs got the most cash from FAAC in at least seven years after the subsidy removal took away its burden on public coffers and a currency reform delivered a 40% boost on naira income.
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He also, noted that States and Local Governments received a total of N6.57 trillion in 2023 which double the N3.16 trillion they collected in 2022 expressing concern that, “despite availability of more cash to States, 14.2million more citizens continue to grapple with poverty as most of the States with increase allocation face significant challenge in payment of salaries, effective management of public institutions, while unemployment rate has increased to over 51% in some of them.
“Most worried that state governors have brazenly refused to complement the federal government poverty amelioration efforts and are not driving the necessary economic transformation that will reduce citizen suffering in their respective states with the increased allocation at their disposal,” Kuye added.
