Speaking at a programme to enlighten state and local government officials on data management and electronic data collection, in Abuja yesterday, the chairman of the forum, Mr. David Olofu who is also the Benue State Commissioner of Finance, disclosed that “The federal government should get less allocation than the states because the sub-nationals have a lot to do”
Similarly, the President of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon. Kolade David Alabi, decried that the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission,RMAFC, should save the local governments from extinction. He argued that more funds should be allocated to the local governments.
“For fairness, local governments should be represented in Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC)” he said.
In his response, the chairman of RMAFC, Mohammed Bello assured all agitators that the commission has carried out a review of Vertical Allocation formula and submitted same to the President.
He disclosed that the commission has equally commenced the process of reviewing the horizontal revenue allocation formula explaining that the horizontal revenue allocation formula is the sharing of federation account revenue among states and local governments in line with the principles, factors and proxies stated in the constitution.
For the vertical allocation formula, the chairman said it denotes the sharing arrangement among states and local governments including Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Considering the above, the commission deems it necessary to organise a programme to enlighten the officials of states and local governments on the electronic platform for data collection for the review of the current indices used in the horizontal allocation formula” he said.
Shehu noted that the 1999 constitution empowers the commission to review, from time to time, the revenue allocation formulae and principles in operation to ensure conformity with changing realities, provided that any formula which has been accepted by an Act of the National Assembly shall remain in force for a period of not less than five years from the date of commencement of the Act.
In his remarks, the Federal Commissioner and Chairman, Indices and Disbursement Committee of RMAFC, Dr Chris Akomas, explained that the sensitisation workshop is geared towards the review of the indices used for the horizontal sharing of revenue based on the formula template which has to do with the review of the proxies, factors and assigned weights.
The enlightenment program which is billed to last for a week at the Conference Hall of the commission's headquarters in Abuja is being facilitated by Abba Adaudu & Co.
