Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Ahmed Idris owned up Thursday that the federal government did not have the required robust platform of monitoring inflows of the various revenue generating agencies of government.
This, he said, incapacitated his office from effectively blocking noticeable loopholes of revenue leakages across the various revenue generating agencies.
The AGF’s position was a response to questions fired at him by members of the Senate Committee on Finance to that effect.
Specifically, the committee Chairman, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC Lagos West), sought to know whether the AGF’s office had any mechanism of monitoring revenue inflows and by extension blocking the leakages in the system f any.
Responding, the AGF said: “We don’t have any monitoring mechanism for now aside the Treasury Single Account (TSA) platform, which is not robust enough for the mechanism you are requesting for.
“We are trying to work out a robust mechanism to monitor revenue inflows of the entire 300 revenue generating agencies in blocking loopholes of revenue leakages.
“But for now, through the TSA, revenue inflows of about 60 out of the 300 revenue generating agencies are being well monitored.”.
Irked by his submission , the committee chairman and some members like Senators Ayo Akinyelure ( PDP Ondo Central), Adamu Aliero ( APC Kebbi Central) , Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central) among others, wondered why only 60 out of 300 revenue generating agencies were being monitored .
“This is unacceptable and very injurious to efforts being made for revenue generation in financing the N12.6trillion 2021 budget.
“Robust mechanism that will cover all the 300 affected agencies must be put up if government’s desire of blocking leakages is to be taken seriously,” Adeola said.
He also kicked against monopolistic usage of REMITA platform for revenue collection in the country, saying “using it as the sole platform is not acceptable.
“We need more formidable platforms for revenue collection because there are a lot of complaints about REMITA.
“REMITA, to a large extent, has failed in the cumbersome assignment given to it. It cannot remain as the sole online revenue monitoring mechanism for the federal government, “he further said.
The AGF however informed the committee that efforts were being made by his office in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to bring on board more online revenue monitoring platforms.
