States get N1.9tr excess crude account loans
The Federal Government said, as of September 2017, it has disbursed a total of N1.91 trillion loans to states from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), the budget support facility and the Paris Club refunds.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said this in Abuja yesterday at the Dialogue of Organs of Government on Reform of Justice Sector and Campaign Against Corruption, organized by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption and Federal Ministry of Justice.
Osinbajo put the ECA and the budget support loans to states within the period at N873.3 billion, saying no previous administration had given such support to states since 1999.
The vice president, who was represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Ade Ipaye, said the present administration should be applauded for exercising restraint and discipline in its appointment of public servants.
Osinbajo: Why Nigeria declined on corruption index
He said despite the latest corruption perception index released by Transparency International, the administration was making progress in its fight against corruption, saying the perception of the TI “may indeed lag behind reality.”
He, however, said rather than see the ranking of Nigeria by the TI as a setback, the government had “to keep up the good fight until the full effect of our efforts can be clearly seen and perceived.”
He said main reason for Nigeria’s decline in the Transparency International 2017 Corruption Perception Index was that the nation recorded a major drop in score on just one out of the nine international recognized indexes used by Transparency International to ascertain perceived levels of public sector corruption from the perspective of experts and business people.
“So, the drop recorded was in just one out of the nine recognized indexes. The index in question scored Nigeria low on the economy intelligence unit country’s risk service with the decline from 37 points to 20. This is an index that analysis the risks of financial exposure in countries.
The chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Itse Sagay, said his committee would rather work alone rather than with corrupt people.
