December 17, 2014
Bassey Udo

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting for November
ended in confusion in Abuja as representatives of Nigeria’s 36 states and the
Federal Capital Territory accused the federal government of not accounting for
about $1billion (N168bn) of excess crude oil money.

The Chairman of State Commissioners of Finance, Timothy Odaah, told
reporters after the meeting which ended Tuesday night, that no state knew
how the $1 billion difference reported in the Excess Crude Account balance,
between October and November, came about.

Prior to the October FAAC meeting, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, had told reporters that the balance of the Excess Crude Account stood
at $4.11billion.
At the event, the minster also revealed that the country’s external reserves
rose from $36.6b in June to $39.48b as at October 16. The balance in the
Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) stood at $1.55 billion.
But, at the end of the FAAC meeting on Tuesday, the Minister of state for
Finance, Bashir Yuguda, told reporters that the current savings in the ECA had
a balance of about $3.1 billion, raising questions about the $1billion
difference.
The FAAC meeting is a monthly gathering of state finance commissioners and
the federal finance ministry and the Accountant General of the federation,
where federal oil receipts are shared between the federal and state authorities.
With falling oil price, the 36 states have turned more attention on the Excess
Crude Account, which has depleted from more than $40 billion in 2007 to
about $4 billion in 2014.
Though Mr. Odaah said the discrepancy has been noted for discussion at the
next FAAC meeting, his disclosure called to question how transparent the
management of the excess crude revenues is.
Mr. Odaah had said on October that owing to the dwindling revenue allocation
to the states from the federation accounts as a result of falling oil prices, the
states had sent a request to President Goodluck Jonathan that $2 billion be
shared.
But in the latest meeting, he said no one can tell how the balance suddenly
dropped from $4.1b to $3.1b.

It's Jonathan's destiny to bankrupt Nigeria.

Never in the history of Nigeria has so much money gone missing.
Even if Jonathan is not responsible for stealing all the missing funds, he's guilty of extreme negligence. All the president's men/women are rogues.

I forgot, this is election time... money don waka alone by itself.

againnn

reporter1:
It's Jonathan's destiny to bankrupt Nigeria.

Never in the history of Nigeria has so much money gone missing.
Even if Jonathan is not responsible for stealing all the missing funds, he's guilty of extreme negligence. All the president's men/women are rogues.

I forgot, this is election time... money don waka alone by itself.

Is the oil your own

Please fight to establish excess cocoa/groundnut account

na today? no be so $20bn miss. Sir president your time is almost up.
p.s posterity will judge you.

sai GMB
sai APC

Another mischievous and politically oriented report from misinformed and aggressive opposition States representatives

Please pay attention to the statements in highlight for another allegation and the response to the earlier misinformation.

$30 billion not missing from Excess Crude Account — Okonjo-Iweala

December 27, 2014Bassey Udo



Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has denied that $30 billion is missing from the Excess Crude Account as alleged by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State.

“The widely published comment by Gov. Adams Oshiomhole alleging that 30 billion dollars is missing from the Excess Crude Account is shocking and totally untrue,” a spokesperson for the minister, Paul Nwabuikwu, said in statement Saturday.

“The comments reflect, once again, the unfortunate tendency of some political players to politicise the management of the economy on the basis of half-truths and sundry distortions.

He said Mr. Oshiomhole’s comments gave the impression that the Federal Government doles out whatever it wished to the states from the Federation Account.

“But anyone who is familiar with the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) process knows that this is simply not true.

“The meetings are held every month and Commissioners of Finance and other officials represent their states and agreements are reached on issues including the distribution of proceeds from the Account.

“There is no 30 billion dollars missing from the Excess Crude Account as alleged by Governor Oshiomhole,” it added.

The response followed an allegation by Mr. Oshiomhole that given the number of barrels of oil produced in the country and the dollar rate in the last three years, the amount raised in the Excess Crude Account fell by at least $30 billion.

The governor also said the revenue in the account had not been shared in the last 18 months and yet the account went empty.

“Over the past three years, whereas the budgets have been based on an average price of between $78 and $79 a barrel, the average price of Nigeria’s sweet crude has been around $108 per barrel. That gives a surplus of over $30. Ideally, we ought to be saving $36 per barrel.

“With 2.3 million barrel a day over the past three years, if you look at these numbers, you will find that what we should have in our excess crude oil account should be over $30billion. But, as we speak, we have barely $3 billon,” Mr. Oshiomhole said.

The Chairman of the Commissioners Forum in the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), Timothy Odaah, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on telephone on Saturday expressed surprise at the allegation, saying he would not comment on the allegation till he confirmed with the authorities at the Ministry of Finance.

“I am yet to get in contact with the AGF (Accountant General of the Federation) or the Minister of State for Finance on the issue. There is need for me to verify from them to confirm if the allegation is true that Edo State have not been getting anything,” he said.

“I cannot competently comment on the information, because none of my members (Commissioners for Finance from the 36 states and FCT) have called me to complain,” he added.

But the minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, said the governor’s claim could never be true.

“How can such a huge amount be missing from the ECA and the Edo State governor will be the only one privy to this?”

After sharing about N1.196 trillion wind-falls as revenue allocation for the months of August and September 2013, the then Minister of State for Finance and Chairman of FAAC, Yerima Ngama, had announced a resolution by members to henceforth stop the “culture of augmenting monthly allocations by drawing from the ECA, whenever available revenue fell short of the budgeted for the month.”

The resolution was in line with the Federal Government decision to ensure that at no time would the ECA balance be allowed to fall below $10 billion, to provide cushion to the economy in times of unexpected shocks.

Despite the resolution, members of the FAAC, consisting the Commissioners of Finance and their Accountants General from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, continued to withdraw from the ECA to augment statutory allocations.

As at December 2013, the balance in the ECA was about $6.9billion.

Mr. Yerima said an additional $2billion transferred to the account had raised the balance to $8.9billion in January 2014.

Mr. Yerima said another $1billion was withdrawn at the end of the month for sharing among the three tiers of government, bringing the new balance in the account to about $7.9billion.

Between May and June, various deductions were also made from the account. Another $2.7billion was withdrawn in September 2014.

At the end of the FAAC meeting in October, Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda, said the balance in the ECA was about $4.11 billion.

But, the meeting for November ended on a controversial note on December 16 as representatives of the 36 states and the FCT accused the federal government of not accounting for about $1billion (about N168 billion) of excess crude oil money withdrawn from the account.

The minister later denied that $1 billion was missing.


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/173865-30-billion-not-missing-excess-crude-account-okonjo-iweala.html

hmmm

All the people incharge of the money from the remitting point need to be jailed from head department. That's when fear of stealing will live among us.

If them like make dem Steal over $20b , stealing is not corruption and if such huge amount of Money is missing, America will know.

Btw, No be todAy thiS kind thing dey happen, Next thing we go hear now nah Presidential Pardon.

BlackTechnology:



Is the oil your own

Please fight to establish excess cocoa/groundnut account

Most of the money comes from oil but not all of it. And as long as Nigeria remains one country then yes that oil belongs to all of us whether you like it or not. Blame Aguiy-Ironsi for ending the regional system of government in favour of a unitary one.

Jonathan must produce all these missing monies after he steps down from office this May by God's grace.

BlackTechnology:



Is the oil your own

Please fight to establish excess cocoa/groundnut account

people like wil never allow this country to grow. you that own oil,

tell us how well your life is
tell us how many good roads you have
tell us how many functional public school you have
tell us how many functional hospital you have
tell us...
tell us how poor you are & how miserable your life is.

Jonathanian fraud

you see the kind of country we are in..... I expect this thread to be full of points ,criticism and counter thoughts and research but no we read and ignore....

We are more interested in Buharis certificate, Jonathans PHD, Buharis daughter, PEJ grammatical errors......and we call ourselves a serious nation?

C The So called Pdp Supporters

Anyone that moves this lie to FP will have my wrath to contend with.

BokoHaramm:
Anyone that moves this lie to FP will have my wrath to contend with.

Why?? And who are you??

Where is the PriceWaterCoopers report? What is the result of all the investigations? Why is the NNPC records not made public?

GEJ's sole ambition is to run Nigeria to the ground. Believe me.

babadee1:


Most of the money comes from oil but not all of it. And as long as Nigeria remains one country then yes that oil belongs to all of us whether you like it or not. Blame Aguiy-Ironsi for ending the regional system of government in favour of a unitary one.

Jonathan must produce all these missing monies after he steps down from office this May by God's grace.

Lol

Farmer go cultivate your cocoa