Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, has said<\/p>\n
government institutions indebted to the Abuja Environmental Protection<\/p>\n
Board (AEPB) risk having a chunk of their overhead expenditure deducted<\/p>\n
from the first line charge, should they fail to settle their outstanding<\/p>\n
debts to the Board.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Head of Service gave this warning when the Chairman, Ministerial Task<\/p>\n
Team on the recovery of N9 billion owed the AEPB, Baba Shehu Lawan, led<\/p>\n
members of the team to her office in Abuja.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to her, the MDAs have no business owing the AEPB as these<\/p>\n
expenses ought to have been fully catered for in their annual overhead<\/p>\n
budgetary expenditures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oyo-Ita who disclosed that her office has similar understanding with the<\/p>\n
PHCN or the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company to deduct at first line<\/p>\n
charge all indebtedness by government institutions to the company, said it<\/p>\n
would have no option than to write the budget office to authorize this<\/p>\n
arrangement, should these MDAs fail to defray their indebtedness to the<\/p>\n
AEPB.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to convey a very strong message to all the MDAs under the office<\/p>\n
of Head of Service, that is the Ministries and various Parastatals that if<\/p>\n
efforts are not made to clear these debts by the next overhead allocation,<\/p>\n
we will have no option than to ask the budget office to make deductions at<\/p>\n
first charge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the arrangement we even have here with the PHCN or Abuja<\/p>\n
Electricity Distribution Company. We\u2019ve given the budget office approval<\/p>\n
to deduct our bills and they are still doing it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Head of Service also disclosed that a committee will be set up,<\/p>\n
comprising members from her office and FCT Administration to negotiate<\/p>\n
with the erring MDAs for the purposes of reconciliation and payment of<\/p>\n
these outstanding debts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking earlier, the Chairman, Ministerial Task Team on the recovery of<\/p>\n
N9 billion owed the AEPB, Baba Shehu Lawan, said the FCT Minister, Malam<\/p>\n
Muhammad Musa Bello, constituted the special task team when the<\/p>\n
administration realised it was unable to offset its rising indebtedness to<\/p>\n
the companies it had contracted to provide these services.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lawan emphasised that due to the dwindling revenues accruing to the FCTA,<\/p>\n
the administration was finding it very difficult to settle these bills,<\/p>\n
which he said, amounted to more than N200 million per month.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cthe level of indebtedness to the FCTA by federal<\/p>\n
government agencies exceeds over N9 billion. We have organizations, the<\/p>\n
residents, the plazas, the commercial banks, the hospitals and so forth<\/p>\n
that are all indebted to the administration\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He stressed that,\u00a0 \u201cbecause of this fact, this special task team was<\/p>\n
constituted and given 8 weeks to recover such funds. We are now in our<\/p>\n
third week.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The chairman\u00a0 appealed to the Head of Service to prevail on the MDAs to<\/p>\n
oblige and defray their balances within the shortest possible time to<\/p>\n
avoid discontinuation of solid and liquid waste disposal services.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FCT Administration is by no means willing to embarrass federal<\/p>\n
institutions either by dragging them to the mobile court or to discontinue<\/p>\n
the services of either solid or liquid waste,\u201d Lawan restated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, has said government institutions indebted to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) risk having a chunk of their overhead expenditure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n