 Ngozi Iweala, Nigerian Minister of Finance
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Nigeria re-launches publication on revenue allocation
The Nigerian Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has re-launched the publication on federation revenue allocation.
The publication, which contains the past 18 months’ federation revenue, is entitled ‘Detailed Breakdown of the Allocation of the Federal, States and Local Government.’
Keeping Nigerians abreast
Addressing newsmen in Abuja the nation’s capital, 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.
Eweala said: “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.”
She said the publication was made possible with the support of the Accountant General of the Federation.
Okonjo-Iweala urged the media and civil society groups to make effective use of the data to educate Nigerians on what government has been doing.
She affirmed that the publication would be uploaded to the Finance Ministry’s website to enable people have access to it and make various criticisms that would assist government.
She further said that mechanisms would be put in place to institutionalise the publication in order to ensure continuity.
2011 budget
Commenting on the 2011 budget, the minister 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 figures is because we have a little bit of difficulty”, she explained.
False report
She dismissed the report by the media whistle blower, Wikileaks, that she influenced the award of contracts worth 50 million dollars to her brother.
“The wikileaks story about me is completely false and absolutely false. If you read it, you will see two sentences say that someone alleges that I gave something to John John. They were not intelligent because any one who investigates will know that I have no brother called John John’’, she said.
Wikileaks in its September 9 publication, had accused Iweala of steering public contracts worth up to 50 million dollars to her brother, with the help of the then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nasir El-Rufai, under the government of Olusegun Obasanjo.
NAN/Shakira/Ekata |
