Okonjo-Iweala Relaunches Publication of Revenue Allocation

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, on Sunday re-launched the publication on federation revenue allocation.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the minister said it was imperative to re-launch the publication to keep Nigerians abreast of how revenue was being shared among the three tiers of government.

The publication, which contained the past 18 months federation revenue, was entitled “Detailed Breakdown of the Allocation of the Federal, States and Local Government.

“Today, I want to share with you the launch of the programme (Transformation Agenda) with a very visible sign which is the re-launch of the publication of the federation revenues.

“If you recall, we started during the last administration to publish this on a very regular basis; when I came back, I found out that for almost a year, the publication had stopped.

“With the support of the Office of the Accountant General of the federation, we began the publication but most importantly, we have now put the past 18 months federation allocation revenues into this booklet,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala said the publication would be uploaded in the ministry’s website to enable people have access to it and make various criticisms that would assist government.

He urged the media and civil society groups to make effective use of the data to educate Nigerians on what government had been doing

She further said that mechanisms would be put in place to institutionalise the publication in order to ensure continuity.

Commenting on the 2011 budget, she said efforts were being made to track the level of implementation.

“We are compiling the information now, we are on implementation because as you know, the reason why I will not give you figure is because we have a little bit of difficulty.

“We are going through some virements because as you know, the budget has problems with some ongoing projects that are taken out.

“Some ministers came in and saw that some ongoing projects are no longer in the budget or reduced and there are new projects which they knew nothing about.

“This means that it is a very difficult issue which we must not go through again if we are to have a proper budget in this country,” she said.

She said the 2012 budget, which the ministry and Budget Office were working on, would focus on completing unfinished projects.