IN the face of dwindling oil receipts, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has called for a review of the revenue allocation formula in favour of states and local councils to enable both tiers of government discharge their financial obligations to workers and other stakeholders.
Okowa, who spoke yesterday in Asaba at the Federation Account Committee (FAAC) Post-Mortem Sub-Committee Retreat on the evaluation of issues emanating from the federation account said that most states and local councils owed workers’ salaries, adding that it was practically impossible for states to implement their budgets.
As a way out of the current downturn in the national economy which has resulted in dwindling revenue receipts from oil and gas, he said that the state government had decided to place emphasis on internally generated to finance its budget and other activities.
Okowa, however, commended the Federal Government on the recent bailout to states.
“Let me use the opportunity to call on all states and local governments to exploit agriculture, tourism and solid mineral resources to boost their revenue base as the continued dependence on statutory monthly allocation has become both unrealistic and unsustainable owing to the volatility of oil and gas prices at the international market.”
The Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Elias Mbam, had earlier explained that the committee was primarily set up to critically analyse and examine all submissions made to FAAC in respect of all accruals into the federation account by both collecting and accounting agencies and report to FAAC at plenary.
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