The House of Representatives has said agencies of the Federal Government are engaging extra-budgetary spending contrary to the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
They also accused some agencies of under-reporting the actual revenue generated
Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. James Faleke,who disclosed these during the ongoing interactive session on the 2020-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP),threatened to remove capital and overhead costs from the 2022 budget of those that fail to appear for interface with lawmakers .
He said agencies that are yet to appear before the Committee will be re-invited to appear on resumption of the House of Representatives from recess.
“The committee is also worried over the agencies in-flagrant disregard for extant laws particularly the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) Federal Revenue generating Agencies have refused to remit Revenues due to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The action as it were is putting a major strain on the resources which ordinarily should be available for Government to pursue its development objectives,” Faleke added.
He warned the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), of the consequences should the agency try to sabotage lawmakers to ascertain the actual volume of premium motor spirit (PMS) and other petroleum products consumed in the country.
Hon. Faleke, who faulted the refusal of the PPPRA Executive Secretary, Mr. Abdulkadir Saidu, to appear as scheduled, threatened that the committee will activate relevant sections of the Constitution to compel his appearance.
He added: “We wrote you to appear before us today. You were here two days ago. And you presented documents to us which we reviewed.But we discovered that your figures contradicted themselves and we asked you to take a date to appear; and you took yesterday.
“Yesterday, suddenly you presented a letter to say you couldn’t come yesterday.Today, we are here, you must appear before us with your documents.Your figures will determine the volume that we consume in this country and the under-recovery.We need to know and if you don’t bring them, we will of course take the appropriate action against you,” Hon. Faleke said.
He emphasized urgent need to establish the country’s actual daily fuel
consumption as data from the relevant stakeholders in the downstream sector were found to be conflicting.
He added:”Also, note worthy is the fact that the current PMS under recovery payments constitute a major drain on the Country’s scarce resources. With the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act, it is expected that this would come to an end soon. Agencies have leveraged on their establishment Acts to spend their Internally Generated Revenue thereby denying the Government the needed Revenue. The Committee established that some of these Acts are self serving and against National interest. The need to expeditiously amend such Act cannot therefore be overemphasized”.
