The 16 local governments of Kwara are to share about N382.1 million from the State Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) for the month of Feb. 2017.
The state’s Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu, disclosed this on Tuesday in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin.
Banu said the sharing formula was adopted after the monthly JAAC meeting in Ilorin.
He explained that the figure included the 10 per cent of the state government’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) distributable for the month, representing N59.6 million.
The commissioner said the Gross Statutory Allocation for the councils was N1.045 billion; Value Added Tax (VAT), N395.5 million and exchange gain difference of N219 million.
He said that N273 million was deducted at source as repayment for the councils’ previous borrowings from banks.
Other deductions, the commissioner explained, were one per cent training fund, which stood at N500,000 and 0.5 per cent JAAC budget, representing one million naira.
Giving a breakdown of the allocation distribution, Banu said N900 million was appropriated for the payment of Basic Education teachers’ salary, while N163.4 million was allocated for local government pensioners’ arrears.
He, however, disclosed that N579.9 million was required monthly to pay salaries of council workers; N1.1 billion for SUBEB staff while N355.9 million was required to pay council pensioners monthly.
According to the statement, JAAC agreed that 15 per cent of the allocation accruing to the councils should be deducted for their administrative running costs.
The statement reported the Chairman of Ilorin South, Alhaji Isiaka Danmeromu, as saying that the councils needed funds to run their activities, to make them productive.
He said paucity of funds had really affected the operations of the councils, lamenting that many council staff did nothing at their various offices because there was no administrative running costs available for them.
The chairman said that though the councils’ IGR had improved a bit since the collaboration between them and the state internal revenue service, the fund was still inadequate to cater for their running costs.
Danmeromu also disclosed that due to the huge shortfall in January allocation to the councils, traditional rulers were not paid, describing the situation as `unfortunate.’ (NAN)