FCT Area Councils Share N1.65b December Allocation

Area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Wednesday shared N1,654,556,244.56 being revenue allocation from the Federation Account for December 2012.
Of the said amount, Value Added Tax (VAT) accounted for N817.04 million, showing a decline from N890.69 million received for the month of November and statutory allocation of N757.63 million as well as N56.77 million as Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) allocation.
Net revenue allocation of N663.62 million was distributed to the councils for December , with Gwagwalada receiving the lion’s share of N137.52 million, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) N137.48 million, Bwari area council N120.75 million; Abaji area council N103.23 million; Kuje area council N99.26 million and Kwali area council, N85.17 million.
Minister of state for the FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide who disclosed this after a meeting of the FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) noted that “of the N1.654 billion, the Joint Account Allocation Committee transferred N849.34 million to the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) for payment of the primary school teachers’ salaries in the area councils; N95.04 million to FCT Area Councils Pension Board (ACPB) being 15 per cent pension fund as statutorily required, and N16.54 million to FCT Area Councils Service Commission being one per cent training fund.”
Akinjide who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, FCT, Engr. Anthony Ozodinobi explained that AMAC got the highest SURE-P allocation of N16.77 million, followed by Bwari N9.28 million; Gwagwalada N8.50 million; Kwali N7.79 million and Abaji N6.96 million.
She also disclosed that the biometric audit of all the six area councils which the administration was undertaking is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year, saying the audit is aimed at tracking the number of workers in the six area councils of the territory and eliminating ghost workers.
“We have gone through the procurement processes and have engaged a consultant to undertake biometric audit of all workers in the area councils. We want to ensure that the workers in the area councils are genuine and also make sure that they are qualified for the positions they are holding,” she added.