
The Senate Committee on Finance has lamented that over N3 trillion of generated revenues of the government are in the possession of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The Committee Chairman, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Lagos West), also expressed fear that the fund may already have been spent on frivolous expenditures contrary to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic and the Fiscal Responsibility Act(FRA), 2007.
This revelation was made known as the Senate Committee on Finance continues its investigations into revenue remittances by over 700 MDAs of federal government.
He disclosed these at the weekend when the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed alongside the Director General of Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze and the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Idris Ahmed with other heads of agencies appeared before the committee 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.
He explained that he invited the Minister, the DG, Budget Office and the Accountant General of the Federation to get their full buy-in and brief them on the revelations unearthed by the over four weeks 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).
He added that most of the agencies abuse the concept of operating surpluses to shortchange 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.
He told the Minister that from submissions already made and calculations from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, about 60 Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs), may have about N3 trillion of government revenue still unremitted in their coffers or already spent on frivolous expenditure contrary to the Constitution and FRA, 2007.
He added that 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.
He disclosed that the investigation has 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 revenue to fund aspects of their operations, adding that this will reduce their dependence on federation budget and assist in reducing budget deficits.