June salaries still on hold as FAAC meeting ends in deadlock for 3rd time

There seems to be no end to the crisis between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other members of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) over non remittances.

The meeting which was held on Thursday again ended in a deadlock as it was suspended indefinitely, making it the third time the meeting would end in confusion since June 27 when it was first scheduled for the month.

This implies that workers’ salaries for June will delay further on the heels of the fruitless meetings.

Members of the FAAC had rescheduled the meeting for Tuesday, but later postponed it to Thursday after they could not reach a consensus on the revenue remittances of the NNPC.

At the end of Thursday’s meeting, which lasted barely one hour, Commissioners of Finance were seen filing out of the meeting one after the other.

Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners, Mahmood Yunusa, who spoke with newsmen after the meeting, said it can only be reconvened after “the process is strengthened.”

“The next meeting is a function of when we finish. What we are looking for is for the process to be strengthened, once the process is strengthened there is no need for this fight,” Yunusa added.

He noted that the decision of the state governments and other members of FAAC to oppose NNPC’s paltry remittances “is about the system and the process and we are working on it.”

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“It is no longer a joking matter; it has gone to the highest level. Mr President will sit down, he is highly interested in this, he is taking his time to ensure that the right thing is done,” he said.

According to him, the state governments’ determination is hinged on the desire to “strengthen and deepen this process, once the process is strengthened, the correct amount is supposed to go to federal revenue account.”

He noted that state governments and other FAAC members opposed to NNPC were aware that people are facing difficulties because of the development, stressing that it was a sacrifice to resolving NNPC under remittance.

Should the issue causing the postponement remain unresolved, civil servants would have to wait a little longer to have their June salaries paid to them.

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