Amid allegations of misuse of Paris Club Refunds by the 36 state governors in the country and deliberate refusal of the federal government to provide explanation on the disbursement of the funds, the ministry of finance on Monday said the disbursement process is transparent and targeted at specific objectives.
The minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun in a statement said, “The federal government’s disbursement process is transparent and targeted at the attainment of specific economic objectives.”
The funds were released to the various state governments following the inability of some sub-national governments to meet salary and other obligations was considered inconsonant with the federal government’s economic stimulus programme.
Disbursement was subject to an agreement by State Governments that 50% of any amount received would be earmarked for the payment of salaries and pensions. In addition, each Governor gave an undertaking that excess payments would be recovered from the Federal Accounts Allocation (FAAC), if the final reconciliation found that the amount paid under the Anticipatory Approval exceeded that due.
25% of claims, being N522.7 billion of the total money was released to the state governments in December 2016 under the first tranche of the programme.
Adeosun also said the overriding consideration for any further releases of the funds will be the current and projected cash flows of the Federation as well as the outcome of the independent monitoring of the compliance with terms and conditions attached to the previous releases.
To date, nine batches have been processed while some balances remain outstanding to the possible credit of a number of states. Given the foregoing, Adeosun said, “Complete and final figures can only be released and published after each state and the Federal Government have reconciled and agreed on the sums due.”
