FAAC: Did Cross River State Government Lie About Its N34 Million Allocation?

By Jonathan Ugbal

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Aides of Governor Benedict Ayade of Cross River State recently shared posts claiming the State only received N34 million as allocation from the federation account for the month of March 2022.

But, data obtained from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation shows that there may be something amiss.

The sharing formula for these monies is complex but has remained the same for a while with different revenue sources often divided differently. There are the gross statutory and the net statutory allocations which are the actual amount paid.

For March 2022, the States gross statutory share plus mineral revenue from excess bank charges, verification, and reconciliation was N52,996,265.16. However, this dipped to N51,568,222.08 for the net statutory after ecological contributions are deducted.

While that sum alone is higher than what was claimed, it does end there as the distribution from the non-oil excess account shows the State had a gross statutory plus mineral revenue allocation of N566,850,991.12 and when ecological funds were deducted, it dipped to N551,576,563.21.

When this sum is added to the statutory allocation, the State gets a gross of N2,222,635,051.79. However, documents obtained show that the net statutory allocation including mineral revenue was NGN34,960,344.51.

But, the State also received a net share of Value Added Tax of N1,714,301,613.67. When added to the net statutory allocation, it is less than NGN1.75 billion.

And, when the net statutory allocation (N1,389,203,413.34) and the net Value Added Tax (N1,058,454,364.14) paid to the 18 Local Government Areas of the State is added (N2,447,657,777.48) and then subtracted from the lump sum of N4,196,919,735.66 paid to the entire State and Local Government Areas, the balance belonging to the State alone is NGN1,749,261,958.18.

The State usually deducts over 31 percent of the lump allocation given to Local Governments. 31 percent of the Local Government lump sum is N758,773,911.24.

When that is added to inflow from the Federation Account Allocation Committee to the State, the total inflow will exceed NGN2.4 billion to the State alone.