By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

ABUJA—The three tiers of government are to share the sum of N524.113 billion as statutory revenue which accrued to the Federal Account in the month of August anytime this week.

Commissioners of Finance from the states who were in Abuja last weekend to take necessary final decisions before the disbursement of the revenue, went home disappointed as the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting had to be suspended over failure of the Federal government to put more money on the table from July collections.

Chairman of  Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr. Timothy Odaah, explained after the meeting that it had to be suspended over unresolved issues about outstanding backlog of revenue not remitted to the Federation Account by agencies of the Federal Government.

His words:  “It is of a general knowledge because we have some accumulated backlogs and we had by the month of June when we met and agreed that as far as August 2013 is concerned, all backlogs will be cleared but this was not done.”

The finance commissioners’ spokesman said it would be necessary for the state governors to meet President Goodluck Jonathan to iron out issues about the backlog of unremitted funds as, according to him, some of the issues are beyond the commissioners.

“On a very serious note, it is a matter we feel that our bosses, the state governors and the President Goodluck Jonathan should look into.

‘’We were to meet the Minister of Finance as expected because there was a meeting we were to hold with her but due to the schedule of her duty, we couldn’t, probably much more hint would have been given.”

The Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yarima Ngama, who is the Chairman of FAAC, told journalists at a separate interview in Abuja, at the weekend,  that he was working assiduously to clear the backlog, especially the shortfall of about N140 billion recorded in the month of July.

According to him, the ministry of finance was to produce N40 billion which it had done and that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was also working on remitting N75 billion.