Despite claims that his administration has recovered stolen money from previous government officials, President Muhammadu Buhari, it was disclosed, is yet to give details of the recovery to the Federal Ministry of Finance.
President Muhammadu Buhari had said that some former government officials have started returning to the Federal Government’s coffers, part of the public funds they acquired illegally. Buhari said the decision to to return the money by the officials was voluntary.
He spoke on Tuesday during an interactive session with members of the Nigerian community at the Nigeria House in Tehran, Iran, explaining that the present administration has intensified efforts at recovering all public funds now in the private pockets of former government officials and their fronts.
Addressing journalists in Abuja at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, when asked how much had been recovered from those who looted the treasury, said President Buhari was yet to provide the ministry with details of how much had been recovered but the recovery process was ongoing.
The minister did not say if the recovery had been lodged into the federation account to be shared by the three tiers of government or was still domiciled in a separate government account pending further directive from the president.
The recovered money became an issue at the October 2015 FAAC briefing when the finance minister stated that funds available for disbursement at the end of the meeting was more than the amount shared in the previous month.
She also said that the ministry was doing everything within its powers to increase revenue for the federation.
At the end of the FAAC meeting, the Federal, State and Local governments shared a total sum of N473.83 billion for the October 2015 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
This set of allocations to the three tiers of government marked a pleasant departure from the previous months of falling allocations.
The October 2015, FAAC disbursements, the finance minister said, represents an increase of N83.89 billion compared to the N389.93 billion distributed in September.
Adeosun, who presided over her first FAAC meeting as Minister of Finance, gave the breakdown of disbursements to journalists shortly after the month’s FAAC meeting which began at 5pm and lasted up till 8:09 p.m.
The minister said the amount shared comprised of revenue from statutory sources made up of N388.59 billion and Value Added Tax, N57.78 billion. Of this amount, the statutory allocation to the three tiers of government, she said, was the Federal Government N191.99 billion, States governments N97.38 billion and local governments N75.07 billion.
Adeosun also said the sum of N24.14 billion was allocated to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle. While under the Value Added Tax (VAT), allocations, the Federal Government received N8.66 billion, states governments pocketed N28.89 billion and local governments were given N20.22 billion to share.
She put the gross statutory revenue for the month of October at N400.31bn stating that this was higher than the N321.99bn received in the month of September.
