Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Government has accused the Federal Government of manipulating the Excess Crude Account to cheat Niger Delta states.
This is even as it disclosed that the state revenue recorded a N1.88 billion deficit as balance for April 2019
Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral Gboribigha John Jonah (retd), who disclosed this at the monthly transparency briefing in Government House, Yenagoa, said its earnings from the Federation Account Allocation Committee have been suffering a setback in the past four months.
Jonah, who presented the state’s income and expenditure accounts for April, said Bayelsa statutory receipts have declined steadily from N13 billion in February to N11 billion in May, this year.
According to him, the dwindling revenue situation is due to the manipulation of the Excess Crude Account by the Federal Government, noting that parameters used in distribution of funds were not in the interest of the Niger Delta states.
“As at the last report, the Excess Crude Account at the national level is almost empty. It is about N130 million from billions of naira we had in that account. At the time the Excess Crude Account Loan Facility was discussed at the National Economic Council, our state position was that we did not need any loan because excess account was there.
“If you look at the papers, the money distributed this month was more than last month. But, we got less. When you talk about the factors that they use, the only one that favour us is the 13 percent derivation.
“But, when this government came, it has a way of adjusting a few things. So, you always see that once the Excess Crude is manipulated, our allocation comes down automatically.
“We are the most advantaged as far as other variables such as number of local governments, land area, and population are concerned. That is why you see our allocation coming down even when the amount being distributed at the centre is increasing,” he said.
Jonah said the state’s gross inflow from FAAC was N12.7 billion compared to the N13.2 billion it received in March, 2019 which represented a difference of N549 million.
Earlier, Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, reassured the people of the Governor Dickson-led administration’s determination to finish strong in spite of the state declining earnings from the Federation Account.
He urged the people not to panic over the gloomy economic outlook painted by the handlers of the nation’s economy, adding that government would do everything within its reach to maintain a stable financial environment in the state.