Over N3trn unremitted fund with MDAs – Senate

 

As the Senate Committee on Finance continues its investigations into revenue remittances by over 700 Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) of federal government, the committee chairman, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Lagos West) has revealed that over N3 trillion of generated revenue of the government may be trapped with MDAs or already spent on frivolous expenditures.

Adeola stated this Friday in Abuja at the National Assembly during the committee’s interface with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Ahmed Zainab,  alongside Director General  Budget Office Ben Akabueze and  Accountant  General of the Federation Idris Ahmed on the  ongoing investigation into revenue remittances by MDAs between 2014-2020 and payment of 1% Stamp Duty on all contract awards by the MDAs within the same period.  

Senator Adeola said the committee  invited the trios to get their full buy-in and brief them on the revelations unearthed during the over four-week long investigations with many agencies committing all manner of illegalities relating to the expenditure of government funds that should rightly be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, (CRF).

Most of the agencies he added, abused the concept of operating surpluses to short change government as well as relying on ministerial circulars over and above the Constitution and FRA, 2007 as passed by the National Assembly. 

“Honourable Minister, in view of the huge budget deficits accompanying our yearly budgets and the resort to huge borrowing to finance these deficits, the committee decided to probe into the revenue remittances by agencies of government as the government cannot continue to borrow yearly while the revenue from agencies that the government is financing with the borrowings are spent contrary to the laws of the land,” he stated. 

The committee chairman stressed further  that from submissions already made and calculations from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, about 60 Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs), may have about N3trillion of government revenue still unremitted in their coffers or already spent on frivolous expenditure contrary to the Constitution and FRA, 2007.

He said since the commencement of the investigations, some agencies have been directed and complied in paying back tens of millions of naira with receipts from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. 

“There is no gainsaying the fact that if these revenues are paid to the CRF for proper appropriation by the Parliament during budget considerations, we are going to reduce dramatically the size of our deficit and hopefully minimize our borrowing.

“We cannot continue to run government business as we used to do in this time when there are huge demands for government to fund needed infrastructure and other socio-economic programmes,” he stated. 

The lawmaker further revealed that the investigation had also led to the willing exit of some agencies, notably among them NAFDAC, NIGCOMSAT, NOTAP and NEREC from the budget of the government while relying on their generated revenues to fund aspects of their operations, adding “this will reduce their dependence on federation budget and assist in reducing budget deficits.”

Minister’s concerns  

In her contribution, the finance minister, Mrs. Ahmed commended the committee for the ongoing probe of revenue remittances, acknowledging that in recent times there were noticeable increase in revenues from agencies directed to pay in revenue to the CRF as required by the law.

She further said  the executive arm  of government was  also scrutinising the application of the template of calculating and deducting operating surpluses by agencies of government to ensure that the right amount are paid to the government. 

The minister however said agencies exiting the National budget should not limit the move to the overhead components of their budget alone.

“The overhead component of budget is the smallest as shown with the N13.8 trillion 2021 budget which has just N380billion as total votes for overheads of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

“So, any revenue generating agency willing to exit the National Budget should go beyond the overhead component of its budgetary proposals”, she said.

Akabueze 

But the DG Budget Office, Mr. Akabueze,  clarified that “the issue of operating surpluses does not apply to  government agencies that are fully funded by the government as all revenue generated by such agencies must be paid in full into the CRF” adding that it is illegal to spend a dime of such money without appropriation by the National Assembly. 

The Senate Committee which continues its investigations on agencies already scheduled to appear before it this week, thereafter set up a committee comprising  representatives from the Offices of the Minister of Finance, the Budget Office, Accountant General of the Federation, the Auditor General of the Federation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission,  to reconcile  the accounts of some agencies running into billions of naira to determine how much was due to the CRF following contradictions in their submissions. 

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