eritvnews: Nigeria Is A Joke As FG Said She Is Tracking Government’s Use of Paris Club Refunds

Buhari President of Nigeria 

The Ministry of Finance is in the process of releasing about N522 billion second tranche of the Paris Club Refund to states amid controversies over the terms for the releases. Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun also said her ministry was monitoring the utilisation of the funds to ensure they complied with terms agreed with federal government.

Vanguard learned that several protests have followed both the first tranche totalling N388 billion and the second. Key controversial areas are the alleged fraud in the utilisation of the first tranche and alleged uneven treatment of the states in the transaction, as some states were said to have got excess of what was due to them, while others got far less.

Following the development, the Finance Ministry, yesterday, responded to the allegations in a statement, indicating it was going ahead with the releases while all controversies would also be addressed. This it would do through a combined action of independent investigations, government audit and reconciliation of the accounts as well as involvement of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in investigating the alleged fraudulent misapplication of the first tranche. Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, who noted that the terms of the refunds remained sacrosanct, however, said it was not possible to publish how much each state received since the exercise had not been concluded.

Adeosun said in a statement by her Media Adviser, Mr. Festus Akanbi:  “The Minister of Finance has deemed it necessary to address the issue of Paris Club Refunds and wishes to assure the public that the Federal Government has consistently complied with all extant rules and regulations in the disbursement of the Paris Club refunds to state governments. “The Federal Government’s disbursement process is transparent and targeted at the attainment of specific economic objectives. The inability of some sub-national governments to meet salary and other obligations was considered inconsonant with the Federal Government’s economic stimulus programme. Claims with regard to over deductions had been made to the Federal Government, consistently since 2005. 

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