Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom State Governor presenting the 2022 Budget to the State House of Assembly.
By Abasifreke Effiong, Uyo
Policy Alert, a Civil Society Organisation promoting fiscal and ecological justice in Niger Delta, has called on the Akwa Ibom State Government to provide details on the source of the ‘exceptional income’ its received in the Q3 and Q4 of 2021.
The CSO insisted that the state government got N171.2 billion and N12.18 billion in Q3 and Q4 of 2021 in that order, under the sub-head of 13 percent derivation revenue arrears.
The organisation emphasised that the Akwa Ibom State Government has received N184.05 billion as ‘exceptional income: 13 percent derivation revenue arrears” in 2021.
Policy Alert in a statement signed by her Executive Director, Tijah Bolton-Akpan said the payment was confirmed in the 2021 Q3 and Q4 budget appraisal report published by the state government.
“The 2021 third-quarter budget appraisal report published by the Akwa Ibom State Government clearly indicates that the state received N171.2 billion under ‘Other exceptional income: 13 percent derivation revenue arrears’.”
“We also use this opportunity to inform the public that in the fourth-quarter, the state received a further N12.81 billion refund as derivation arrears, bringing exceptional income received under this heading in 2021 to a total of N184.05 billion”, the statement reads.
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The call on the state government to provide details of the exceptional income came on the heels of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s denial, weekend, that the State had not received any refund from the federal government in 2021.
The Dune had reported that Governor Emmanuel said people must have mistook the Court judgment on the 13 percent derivation arrears to mean payment, however, he did not provide details where the state got N171.2 billion from.
“From 2018, there has not been any further refund from the Federal Government. I don’t know if people are counting the court judgment on the 13 percent derivation arrears which has not yet been implemented. Even then, people need to ask how much we were earning as 13 percent derivation as of then. When the issue was brought to the Federal Executive Council, they said they will pay it in five years”, the Governor said while responding to a question during a live media interaction “The Governor Speaks”.
Policy Alert has urged the state government to provide details of the N171.2bn and N12.18bn it received as exceptional income in 2021 as recorded in its budget performance report for the Q3 and Q4 of 2021.
It could be recalled that on November 1, 2021, Policy Alert had issued a statement that the Akwa Ibom State Government had received N171.2 billion as thirteen percent derivation arrears during the third quarter of the year, linking the payment to a series of court judgments in favour of four Niger Delta states on arrears of derivation payments from Production Sharing Contracts. Weeks later, the organisation also called on the benefiting states to resist the temptation of using the refund judgment as a guarantee for commercial bank loans.
According to Policy Alert’s Executive Director, the denial by the governor is surprising as financial documents published by the state government confirmed the payments as stated.
Bolton-Akpan said, “We stand by our earlier position that the state government had received such payments as 13 percent derivation. This was confirmed in the 2021 third-quarter budget appraisal report published by the Akwa Ibom State Government which clearly indicates that the state received N171.2 billion under ‘Other exceptional income: 13 percent derivation revenue arrears’. We also use this opportunity to inform the public that in the fourth-quarter, the state received a further N12.81 billion refund as derivation arrears, bringing exceptional income received under this heading in 2021 to a total of N184.05 billion.
“It was apparently in expectation of these payments that the state revised its expected revenue on this budget item from N61.10 billion to N193 billion in September 2021.”
He added, “It is therefore not just curious but potentially misleading to publicly deny that the state has received these funds despite documentary evidence to the contrary. This is indeed a red flag and suggests that something is amiss. Fiscal openness goes beyond publishing what we spend public funds on. We must also be transparent and accountable on the sources of these funds. It is expedient for the State Government to come clean on the true source of the N184.05 billion exceptional income in 2021 if it is not derivation refunds as captured in the state’s fiscal documents.”
Bolton-Akpan called on accountability institutions especially the Office of the Auditor-General and the State House of Assembly to further investigate the issue.
