Senate decries abuse of joint state, council account

The Senate has canvassed strict adherence to the principles of joint accounts between states and councils.

The Upper Chamber reached the decision against the backdrop of calls that the joint accounts have been abused and should, therefore, be abolished with councils given direct access to their federal allocations.

In a 10-point communiqué yesterday at the end of a workshop in Abuja organised by its Committee on States and Local Government Administration, in collaboration with some development partners, the participants, drawn from across the 36 states of the federation, said that the establishment of the local government economic planning board was long overdue.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Abdullahi Gumel, enjoined participants to make good use of the decisions taken at the workshop.

The workshop adopted the recommendation that measures be put in place to fulfill the constitutional requirements of putting a functional board in place.

It maintained that the board if created in each local government or area council would serve as a revenue centre and as well as for development at the grassroots level.

“This is a provision made in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). This for so long has eluded the major stakeholders in the past,” it said.