Federal Government yesterday said it was unable to pay the February arrears to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) because there was not enough fund to pay.
It also denied any debt issue with the state finance commissioners and that it never entered into any agreement with the commissioners contrary to the claim by them that an agreement was reneged by
the Federal Government.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in conjunction with the Presidential Committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan, said the government was making a frantic effort to clear the backlog.
“What we are trying to say is that we have some arrears that were not cleared. So, we are trying to put our accounts together. We are now going to clear them. That is what we are saying. There is no debt, no agreement to sign. This is a federation accounts issue. We are all in it together. It is not that the Federal Government owes the states. It is a federation account. So, we have agreed now on what the arrears are and how much they are. And we are going to clear them. That is the good news we have,” the coordinating minister, said.
Also, in his remarks, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama, corroborated what the coordinating minister said and insisted that the Federal Government had shortages in revenue which made it impossible to pay the shortage.
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