FCT secretariat ordered to account for two-year revenue

Social Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administrational has been ordered to account for all the revenues accrued from a cinema and all the shops it has administered for two years.

The administration also ordered immediate closure of the cinema hall following the perceived poor accountability by the management of the complex.

Permanent Secretary for FCT, Dr Babatope Ajakaiye, gave the order for the closure when he paid an unscheduled visit to the complex.

The secretariate, like its counterparts, has remained without a Secretary since the current Federal Government came to power, leaving its administration in the hands of career civil servants, with myriads of challenges.

During the visit, Ajakaiye vowed that the administration would audit the revenue accruable from the cinema and all the shops administered by the Secretariat in the last two years.

He said that the administration would also probe the lease agreements for all the shops with a view to ascertaining that all monies collected were duly paid into government coffers.

The Permanent Secretary lamented that the administration could not account for the revenue coming from the complex.

“The cinema hall that is said to have been leased out is now closed down with immediate effect. We are going to check the agreement that was signed very thoroughly,” he said.

He went further to say: “As for the shops, we are not going to close them down, but we want to see the agreements of those that are renting the shops and we are going to audit what has been paid and who has been collecting the money.”

According to him, the administration decided to beam its searchlight on the Social Development Secretariat because of its poor revenue profile.

The Permanent Secretary reaffirmed the commitment of the FCT administration under the leadership of the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, to block all financial leakages in the system in tandem with the change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He stated that due to the dwindling revenue occasioned by the plummeting oil price globally, prudent management of scarce resources by the present leadership is what has kept the system afloat.

Ajakaiye noted that while the monthly allocation from the federation account had reduced to N1.8 billion, the staff wage bill remained at N4.1 billion.