Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, yesterday denied rumour of frosty relationship between her office and the National Assembly over the 2013 budget.
The denial is contrary to report that the National Assembly is up in arms against her over statement purportedly made by her which irked the lawmakers.
The minister, who made the clarification during a media briefing in Abuja, said there was no bad blood between the executive and legislature as both arms have been working together in the task of nation-building.
Okonjo-Iweala, who was reacting to reports that the National Assembly was piqued by the statements credited to her in a recent interview with a private radio station, said for clarity of purpose the interview could be culled from the media outfit and reviewed to prove whether or not she made any comment that was against the lawmakers or tended to create bad blood between both the executive and legislature.
Okonjo-Iweala said some media outfits, which monitored the interview, went to published misleading reports about her views on the economy, adding that she never said the economy would collapse by September.
She said given her pedigree, she was the most unlikely person to raise such an alarm, adding that what she said was that the Federal Government may not be able to pay the salaries of civil servants by September due to shortfall in recurrent expenditure.
The minister, however, assured that all the gray areas arising from the 2013 budget would be resolved harmoniously with the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, oil producing communities in Rivers State have lent their voices to the ongoing clamour for direct payment of 13 per cent derivation to the communities.
To press home the demand, the communities have written a letter to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) seeking inauguration of a National Derivation Committee.
In the letter signed by 14 leaders of the communities, they are proposing the setting up of state management committee for the funds so that the fund is received by the National Derivation Committee and disbursed to the states.
The group said the communities have mechanisms for on sanctioning any erring or defaulting member of any of the committees and assured that there would be enough checks and balances in the administrative committee system.
The communities explained that administrative committee system had been used in the past by the Federal Government to implement derivation fund to oil and gas producing communities, adding that by then the 1.5 per cent derivation was never paid through any state government account but was utilised through the administrative committee system.
National Mirror