The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Friday shared the sum of N703.55 million among its six area councils – Abaji, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.
The money is part of the April 2012 revenue received from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) after its meeting of May 18, 2012.
Minister of State for the FCT and the Chairperson of the FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee (FCT JAAC), Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja at the end of the committee’s meeting.
Akinjide explained that a total sum of N1.591 billion was received from the federation account for the FCT area councils, which was made up of statutory revenue allocation of N723.22 million; value added tax (N724.46 million); FCT’s 10 per cent internally general revenue (N120.29 million); and refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (N23.10 million).
“Of the N1.591 billion received for the FCT area councils, the following statutory deductions were made: primary school teachers, N776.58 million; 15 per cent pension fund N95.04 million and 1 per cent training fund of N15.91 million.
A breakdown of the amount received shows that AMAC received the lion share with revenue allocation of N153.1 million for April 2012 while Bwari Area Council got N119.29 million.
Gwagwalada area council got N118.75 million; Abaji N118.67 million; Kuje N100.34 million and Kwali N93.38 million.
She however noted that the administration was not satisfied with the level of development in the area councils in spite of receiving monthly allocations and said the FCTA planned to adopt a reward and sanction system for area councils in the FCT as part of measures to improve the level of performance and development of the territory.
Akinjide added that future allocations to the six area councils would be based on performance and submission of monthly report on utilisation of the funds.
“As part of monitoring and supervision, you will see in future that we may withhold some money from area councils if we are not happy with the level of implementation and judicious utilisation of funds. If our monitoring and implementation report for an Area Council for a particular month is unsatisfactory, then we will withhold money until amendment and correction and ratification of that particular act has been done,” she warned.
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