Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, said on Thursday that there would be a few days of delay in the payment of salaries of workers at the state and federal levels.
The minister disclosed this amidst another allegation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had under-remitted cash into the treasury where funds were domiciled before sharing.
She stated this shortly after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The monthly meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee ended in a deadlock on Wednesday in Abuja following discrepancies in the actual funds expected in the account.
FAAC is a monthly forum where state governments and the Federal Government meet to share money generated through the sale of oil.
Some of the state Commissioners for Finance who attended Wednesday’s meeting were said to have emerged from the venue wearing long faces.
“There was quite an extensive debate on what to do. For the purpose of this briefing, we operate NNPC as a business, we have invested public capital in that business and we have expectations of return and when that return falls lower than our expectations, then the owners of this business which, in this case, is the Federal Government and states need to act.
“So, that was what caused the deadlock yesterday (Wednesday) and we really felt the figures the NNPC was proposing for FAAC were unacceptable.
“We felt that some of the costs couldn’t be justified and so we have decided that rather than approve the accounts, we will go back and do further work.
“Further negotiations and interactions are going on with NNPC as we speak.
“However, we did brief both Mr. President and Mr. Vice President on the deadlock and asked for their support and their forbearance in this, because the consequence of this is that salaries might well be delayed in many states as a result of this.
