From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
The 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the 774 local government areas of the federation have reiterated their call for the review of revenue sharing formula for improvement in allocations accruing to them to enable them take care of the huge responsibilities placed on those tiers of government.
Chairman of Forum of State commissioners of Finance and Commissioner of Finance in Benue State, David Olofu, stated this while speaking to Daily Sun in Makurdi, yesterday.
Olofu had just returned from Abuja where he attended a meeting to enlighten officials of states and local governments on data generation and management.
The programme with the theme, ‘Tooling Programme’, was organised by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission in collaboration with the 36 states, the FCT and 774 councils of the federation.
Speaking to Daily Sun on the phone, Olofu said during the meeting, stakeholders lamented that allocations to the states were not enough to tackle the enormous responsibilities placed on their shoulders.
He noted that under the current sharing formula, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent while the state and 774 local governments get 26.72 per cent and 20. 60 per cent.
He said the formula was unfair to states and local governments because they have huge responsibilities.
He expressed the hope and confidence in the commission that after their submissions at the meeting, they will pursue, to a logical conclusion, the issue of vertical allocation formula.
The vertical allocation formula contains a sharing arrangements among the Federal Government, the states and the local governments while the horizontal allocations formula contains a sharing arrangements among states and local governments including the FCT.
“If this is done, the many challenges bedevilling those tiers of government can be addressed,” he said.