Talebearers

LOCAL COUNCILS DESERVE MORE ALLOCATIONS

-Dayo Saka Fafunmi

The Nigerian government has been urged to increase the statutory allocation to local governments in the country.

Making this call recently was a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Oludayo Saka Fafunmi, who added that the 774 councils in the country are closer to the people than all other tiers of government.

He used the opportunity to condemn the current sharing formula in the country, which he said is not targeted at improving the lives and economy of the nation.

“The federal government is earning about 52 %, the 36 states share 26%, while all the 774 local governments in the country share only 22% of the nation’s income.  When you break it down, the addition of what goes into the states and the local councils are smaller than what goes into the Federal Government. Why would the Federal Government hold on to so much money at the expense of the states and local councils that would help stimulate the economy and let the nation grow. It is quite pathetic that even at national level, for instance, the NNPC does not know the volume of crude oil that is being sold daily. I have never seen a nation that refuses to harness its resources properly, why is it that electricity remains a mirage, why is it that if you want to do a legitimate business, you cannot access the bank to get money, even when the money is available, the interest rate is about 23 or 26%, and it is not easy for such business to break even. If the government wants to help the country, it would be interested in how the medium scale and small scale industries can grow. A lot of people have ideas, but they don’t have financial backings to actualize the dreams. That is the difference between our economy and those of countries like the United States of America and other developed climes, where you can borrow at single digits unlike here,” he said.

The lawmaker, who is also the Chairman, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House said that Lagos deserves a special status, which will turn around the fortune of the state. He called on Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RAMFAC) to look at the peculiarities of the state, and give it more focus just like oil producing states that are being given 13% derivation fund from the sale of crude oil.

According to him: “The Federal Government has less responsibility than the states and the local governments, what is Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) doing in Lagos that Public Works Department in the state cannot do? If the money voted for FERMA is domesticated in Lagos and is executed by Public Works, most of these so called federal roads would have been done; I do not see why roads within the metropolis are being considered as federal roads. The Federal Government should be concerned about inter-state roads and some other things. Most of the roads in Ikoyi in Lagos are still regarded as federal roads. For instance, some roads in Lagos are budgeted for by the Federal Government and we are not aware to monitor them and at the end of the day, nothing would be done and Lagosians are the ones bearing the brunt.”

Speaking on his committee and the exercise it is currently undertaken on the councils in the state, Fafunmi said that  the work of the Public Accounts Committee is to look at the queries raised by the state’s Auditor General, adding that the office is responsible for looking into the books and the projects of the local governments and bring the reports into the House of Assembly, which is then handled by PAC.

“Basically, with what I have seen, I am not in a position to say the reports of the Auditor General are good or bad, it is now left for the committee to dig deeper and ask more questions on things and take positions on them. I would say that we are looking at their accounts for year 2012, PAC is different from budgeting, and we usually deal with money or expenditure that has been carried out over a period of time. The 2012 reports bother on ambitious and unattainable budgetary proposals, most councils would give you budget size that is unattainable. When you see a local government that depends largely on what comes from the federation accounts or what comes from Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASSA) or other sources of internally Generated Revenue (IGR) making budgetary proposal of over N2 or N3 Billion, you would agree that it is an over-bloated budget. That is when you see the chairman appropriating the fund in a manner that suits his own purpose. We have been able to trash this issue and I have equally directed that the budget performance of the local governments should be included in the Auditor General’s Report so that at a glance you would know if the council is really doing well as prescribed by the appropriation law,” he stated.

The lawmaker revealed that the committee has directed that the councils should demand for bank guarantees from contractors who want to collect revenue on their behalf.

He said that the previous agreement is drafted in a way that it would be difficult to collect this money from them most of the time.

“So, we have directed that the bank guarantee should be prepared and obtained before they collect revenue on behalf of the local governments so that if you do not remit the money as expected, the local government can approach the court and obtain an order to compel the guarantee to be implemented, we also intend to step up our oversight functions so that meaningful development can be achieved at the local governments and LCDAs in the state” he stated.