New Nigeria, a pro-democracy group, has accused the Nigeria Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, of using virtual meetings to shortchange states of allocations, saying with COVID-19 vaccine, the effects of the scourge had reduced to the barest minimum.
Mohammed Lawal, the protem coordinator of the group, asked the Minister to reconvene without further delay, the suspension of FAAC (physical meetings) in the last six months.
He said at the eve of the second wave of COVID-19, that suspension of physical meetings for FAAC was effected, but it was discovered that the fora was used to defraud states and FCT of their statutory allocations.
“This is enabled by fictitious deduction and undisclosed revenue to states, which is against the rules guiding the FAAC meeting,” he said.
“This is also responsibile for the drop in allocations to states/FCT in recent times, as what is virtually declared is accepted by the states and FCT.”
He urged the finance Minister to reverse the trend without further delay to avoid continuous pilfering of states’ entitlements by the finance Ministry.
He enjoined the 36 states of the federation and FCT to protest the continuous suspension of FAAC (physical) meetings for virtual sessions in order to restore physical meetings.
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