Chairmen of the six area councils have been cautioned against bloating their staff strength, as the trend is placing huge financial burden on their monthly allocation.
FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, pointed that indiscriminate recruitment without corresponding increase in revenue generation can be detrimental to the councils’ economy
Aliyu, sounded the note of warning during the 166th Joint Account Allocation Committee, JAAC, meeting where she expressed displeasure over the attitude of some council authorities who have embarked on recruitment of staff without corresponding value for revenue generation.
The minister appealed to chairmen to ensure that financial burden was not placed on the councils, just as she reiterated that the era of politics are over.
She therefore asked the councils leadership to scale-up revenue generation with a view to meeting up critical needs of rural communities in the territory.
In her words, “While it is the responsibility of government at all levels to provide jobs, I am also of the opinion that such exercise should be done in corresponding value of revenue generation within your councils.
“It makes no sense to me if we carry out recruitment that will become financial burden to all of us.”
Meanwhile, the committee approved a total sum of N2,903,139,412.86 billion for onward disbursement to the six area councils of the FCT and other stakeholders as its share of statutory allocation for the month of June 2022.
A breakdown of the figures indicate that the sum of N622,223,249.20million was made available for distribution to the six area councils, while the sum of N2,280,916,163.66billion was allocated to other stakeholders, bringing the total sum to N2,903,139,412.86billion.
Similarly, distributions to area councils show that the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, received N140,340,099.54million, while Gwagwalada got N90,790,068.65million and Kuje received N128,422,208.31million.
Other area councils include, Bwari Area Council which received N89,245,658.86million, Abaji got N92,585,160.45million while Kwali received N80,840,053.39million, bringing the total sum to N622,223,249.20million disbursed to the six area councils.
Furthermore, distribution to other critical stakeholders include: Primary School Teachers which gulped N1,917,556,374.33billion, 15 percent Pension Funds took N226,478,989.57million, One percent Training Fund gulped N29,031,394.13million, while 10 percent Employer Pension Contribution gulped N107,849,405.63million, bringing the total sum to N2,280,916,163.66billion.