INVESTIGATION: Tinubu Yet To Approve Full Implementation Of Local Gov't Financial Autonomy
By Our Reporter
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been blamed for the failure of the Federal Government to implement the Supreme Court’s ruling on direct allocation to local government accounts, it has been authoritatively gathered.
It was gathered that despite the court’s order in July, the FG is yet to begin direct payment of local government allocations into their accounts.
The Supreme Court’s ruling directed the federal government to pay monthly allocations directly into the accounts of the 774 local government councils.
However, four months later, allocations are still being paid into the joint state-local government accounts by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.
The delay has been attributed to the absence of approval from President Bola Tinubu for the full implementation of local government financial autonomy.
According to the National President of the National Union of Local Government Employees, Akeem Ambali, the FG set up an inter-ministerial committee to facilitate the Supreme Court’s judgment on local government autonomy.
The committee, chaired by Senator George Akume, submitted a technical report to President Tinubu for approval, but the President has yet to give the green light.
“The recommendations by the committee have been submitted to the President, and we are eagerly awaiting the start of the implementation,” Ambali said.
Meanwhile, the Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Bawa Mokwa, claims that the process for direct disbursement to local governments is ongoing.
However, he failed to provide a specific timeline for when direct payments to local councils would commence.
It can be recalled that following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter, the Federal Government cited the need to address operational challenges before implementing the decision.
Three-month timeline established to resolve the issues expires in October.
However, despite the expiration of this timeframe, the necessary adjustments have yet to be implemented as at the time of going to press.
