Former Commissioner of Finance and now Federal Commissioner of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Rabiu Garba Gusau, has declared that the Zamfara state government received between N13b and N14b as statutory cash allocation from the federal government last month.
He said this figure represents a sharp increase from the N7b to N8b that the state used to receive as its cash allocation.
Mr. Garba said the increase in the release of cash allocations to states in Nigeria was a result of the impact of the removal of the fuel subsidy, which was implemented by President Bola Ahmad Tinubu.
He stated that if the combined allocation of the Zamfara state government and that of the 14 local governments are put together, the state governor, according to Mr. Garba, used to receive between N20 billion to N21 billion and above.
He explained further that, as a Federal Commissioner, he used to write to the state governor confirming the figure released to Zamfara every month, adding that there was never a time when the governor wrote to the Revenue Mobilization Commission denying that such a figure had not been released to the state.
He urged the citizens to always ask the Zamfara Governor and local government council chairmen about the whereabouts of their monthly federal allocation received on their behalf every month.
On the denial of payment of salaries to over 4,000 Zamfara workers, Mr. Garba said it seems those managing the helm of affairs in Zamfara do not understand the way things are working, noting that most of those affected are domestic staff who were recruited using a standing approval strategy. He added that since the time of former Senator Yarima Sani, all other governors have sustained the standing approval.
He noted that domestic civil servants, such as medical doctors, nurses, and teachers, are always in transit, and once they see an alternative lucrative job, they will leave. He mentioned that it is always difficult to seek the consent and approval of the Governor before a replacement is created
He stated that those in charge now refuse to make the appropriate inquiries into how things are done. Instead, because of political opposition, they decided to remove the names of genuine civil servants who had appeared before the committee and been verified.
