Leke Baiyewu, Abuja
The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under-Remittance and Other Fraudulent Activities has said revenue agencies short-changed the Federal Government to the tune of N1.7tn as unremitted revenue generated between 2012 and 2016.
The panel blamed it on a memo by a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who allegedly issued the memo to the agencies to remit 25 per cent of revenue they generated to the Federal Government and spend 75 per cent on their expenditures.
This was contained in an interim report by the committee chaired by Senator Olamilekan Adeola, which was laid before the Senate last week Thursday, a copy of which was sighted by our correspondent on Monday.
The panel said the amount to be remitted to the Federal Government during the period by 93 agencies it investigated was N21.5tn.
It alleged that 25 of the 93 agencies covered defrauded the government of a total of N1,695,585,887,406.
The committee said the agencies chose to comply with a directive by Okonjo-Iweala via a memo dated November 11, 2011, with Reference Number BO/RVE/12235/259/VII/201 by the former minister “to remit 25 per cent only from the revenue generated and use the remaining 75 per cent, which is a clear violation of Section 120 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 as well as the establishment acts of some of these institutions.”
According to the panel, in the report, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ran at a deficit of N3.1tn, while the Nigeria Customs Service, which generated N335.855bn, failed to remit N83.963bn during the period under review.
The committee alleged that the nation’s cash cow generated N15.541tn, while its entire expenditure during the period was N18.657tn, exceeding the corporation’s revenue profile by N3.115tn.
The report also indicted the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which generated N455.5bn but allegedly failed to remit N33.83bn.
Also, the Nigerian Ports Authority reportedly remitted N86.636bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund when it generated N789.104bn.
Others indicted by the panel are the Central Bank of Nigeria, remitting N13.716bn out of N3.098tn; NIMASA, N184.489bn out of N301.160bn; Nigerian Television Authority, N5.567bn out of N56.817bn.
The report read in part, “Most of the revenue generating agencies deny the Auditor General of the Federation access to their financial books and records, which is in conflict with Section 125, Subsection (3) a (i and ii); and Subsection (4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“Consequently, the committee recommends as follows: that the Senate should amend the laws where necessary to make it mandatory for all revenue generating agencies to accommodate resident auditors to be posted by the Auditor General of the Federation that will have access to all financial records and books, and to ensure compliance with Section 120(i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act should be amended in a way to compel all agencies and institutions of government on compliance with financial regulations regarding income generation, accounting and remittances.
“The Senate should also amend the laws where necessary to make it mandatory for all revenue generating agencies to accommodate resident treasury officers to be posted by the Accountant General of the Federation that will have access to all financial records and books.”
Punchng
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Whether the former finance minister instructed those agencies to remit only 25 percent to the government coffers or not, the fact remains that the looters would only be benefited with such monies.
What have these organizations been paying before the minister assumed office? We need to know if really the 25 percent remittance is a contradiction.
What have these organizations been paying before the minister assumed office? We need to know if really the 25 percent remittance is a contradiction. We should not overlook the fact that monies due to the government in any form are not paid because of the notion held by the citizens that they can be misappropriated by government officials.
We should not overlook the fact that monies due to the government in any form are not paid because of the notion held by the citizens that they can be misappropriated by government officials.
If the minister has any question to answer concerning this, call her attention to it and not just floating accusation here.
NOI would not have ordered 25 percent if the law says otherwise.
Check the profile of all Nigerian finance ministers in relation to their performances in office you will see the great difference in NOI.
Please let the sleeping dog lie. The senate that is shouting about under-remittance is guilty of overbloated spending of the nation’s money.
Let the government decide on what to do so that errors or omissions would be experienced any more in our polity.
He who must come before justice must do so with clean hands. The senate should know this.
Believe it or not, the senate is not sincere with whatever disclosure as non-compliance with statutory financial matters.
Even under the so called ‘’change’’ regime, money still gets missing. NOI should be left out of this.
Don’t mind these people. They are just trying hard to drag her name in the mud and it will not work.
Am sure they can’t and won’t find any charges against NOI.
Reformation is the solution to all this mess. But will our present government officials allow that? That’s the height of corruption.
People say PDP this APC that. It is about the individuals that forms the party and not the party as a whole. Most politicians in the ruling APC today were from the PDP Party.
That NOI is corrupt, is something I strongly disagree. If she was found being corrupt during her regime as finance minister, she wouldn’t have been appointed as the director of world bank.
Mind you all, that it was as a result of her intelligent act in handling the economic and financial situation of our dear country, that she was finance minister twice.
NOI made a lot of positive impact to the youths and even the country as a nation. Stop all this negative talks about her. Infact as far as am concerned there are better things to discuss especially on the progress of our country rather than spoiling mentioning and spoiling names of people who made great impact in the country.
The money she directed the agencies to pay was in favour of the government and yet this government sees no good in it knowing fully well that these agencies were privatized during Olusegun obasanjo’s administration.
People should know that you naturally incur expenses in the process of generating revenue. That must have been what informed this memo
But we must not jump into conclusion too soon before hearing her own side of the story.
Basic finance principle will tell you that expenditure is paid for from revenue generated, or else those agencies will be operating in the debt. It is after then you can report and remit the excess, which the so-called memo is saying.
It is such a shame that same inadequate resources been talked about is being squandered on unproductive avenues like the Senate pointing accusing fingers.
When the country needed to reduce her expenditure during the last recession the Senate never proposed to reduce its budgetary allocation.
Few weeks ago, this same woman was called upon by a panel jointly constituted by the World Bank and IMF to speak on “Fighting Corruption”.
It looks to me that we don’t really value what we have, we will rather rubbish and taint the illustrious work of our giants
If the Senate is planning to amend the laws regulating the finances of these agencies they should with quick alacrity
Maybe the Senate should first and foremost tidy its house before looking elsewhere. If you are a source that haemorrhages the income of a set-up, why make the job of those bringing in bread harder?
Maybe we need to properly audit what these agencies reported as their expenditure during the period on review. That wasn’t part of the port-folio of the honourable minister.
This administration uses the slightest opportunity to talk ill of the former minister of Finance just to cover up their own mess.
How many percent remittance has this government brought since 2016 till date? Personally, i see this government is dragging us back.