Review upward allocations to states, LGAs, Gombe gov tells RMAFC

Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe says the state had made a case for an upward review of statutory allocations to States and Local governments in the country to enable them meet the ever expanding challenges of social economic human and infrastructural development.

He  stated this on Tuesday, in Gombe, while flagging off a nationwide sensitization on the Review of Existing Revenue Allocation Formula, by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

The Governor explained  that as the sole revenue allocation agency, RMAFC was charged with the periodic review of Nigeria’s revenue allocation formula, in line with current realities.

“The last time such review was successfully conducted was in 1992, some 29 years ago.

“ Since then, a lot of changes have taken place across our social, political and economic spheres, thus, necessitating a review, in order to ensure a fairer and more equitable allocation formula that is compatible with our current realities.

He further said: “ I understand that this first phase of review will focus on the vertical allocation; that is, how revenue is shared among the three tiers of government (FG), states and LGAs).

“In the existing formula, all the 36 states only collect a paltry of 26.72% while our 774 LGAs collect 20.60% of all the accruals from the federation account, leaving the Federal Government with a lion share of 52.8% over the past decades.

According to him, governments had expanded while their revenue allocation had remained the same, states  have been forced to deal with emerging challenges like insecurity, environmental degradation, decaying infrastructure, inadequate funding for primary healthcare and basic education.

“As the roles of states keep expanding, there’s the need for a proper review of the allocation formula to ensure they get the required resources, to be able to deliver on new and existing responsibilities”, the governor said.

He revealed that the race for fiscal efficiency in Gombe state began as soon as he took over the mantle of leadership, stressing that having inherited a state in dire financial straits, fiscal discipline became the  mantra of his administration.

“We ensured robust implementation of the Treasury Single Account, deployed technology-driven tools to eliminate absenteeism.Redundancies and inefficiencies within the civil service and ensure transparency in government business through a more robust implementation of key metrics under the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Initiative.”