Reps to investigate debt profile of all tiers of government

dimeji akinloye

August 14, 2015 12:34 AM

The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on Aids, Loans, and Debt Management, when constituted, to carry out the probe and report back in six weeks.

House of Reps Speaker, Yakubu Dogara

The House of Representatives on Thursday, August 13, in Abuja resolved to investigate the debt profile of all tiers of government with a view to ensuring compliance with provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The resolution followed the unanimous adoption of a motion sponsored by Rep. Odebunmi Dokun (PDP-Oyo).

Moving the motion, Dokun said the Act was enacted in 2007 to ensure the prudent management of the nation's resources.

He said the act was also to ensure long term macro-economic stability of the national economy as well as promote greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations.

According to him, sections 42 (1b), 42(3), and 42(4) of the Act provide for the management of the debt and indebtedness by all tiers of government.

He decried the rate at which the three tiers of government were borrowing both internally and externally in violation of the Act.

Dokun said such violation included the rate of borrowing, purpose of borrowing, terms of borrowing and manner of approvals.

He also mentioned the setting of overall limits of the consolidated debts and other forms of violations without consideration for the current status of the country's income.

"Most of the states that owing salaries to civil servants and are indebted to contractors are those that had borrowed heavily.

"They are now sucked into the vortex of debt repayment and servicing, since they didn't envisage the current financial challenges’’, he said.

dimeji akinloye