Emerging facts have shown that the revenue of N7.57trn generated by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and 57 other government owned agencies between 2009 and 2011 was squandered and unremitted into Federal Government’s coffer.
According to a 57-page report on “Independent Revenue Generation and Remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund by Government-owned Agencies,” conducted by the House Committee on Finance that was considered and passed during Thursday’s plenary, other indicted agencies are the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Capital Territory (FCT), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Bank of Industry (BOI,; Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), ITF, NAMA, NDIC, NAFDAC, and so on.
The report states that of the sum of N3.06trn realised by the 60 government-owned agencies in 2009, only N46.8bn (a paltry 1.53 per cent) was remitted to treasury; while from the sum of N3.07trn realised in 2010, only N54.01bn (or 1.76 per cent) was; and of the sum of N3.17trn realised in 2011, only N73.8bn (2.33 per cent) was remitted.
On its part, NNPC group (including all its subsidiaries), which generated N6.132trn (excluding its statutory functions as marketer of Nigeria’s crude oil and gas) made no remittance to government’s coffer within the period under review.
“A general analysis of the agencies submissions (excluding NNPC) shows expected remittance of N189bn as at October 2012 while only N80bn had been paid to the Treasury, or 42 per cent compliance, leaving a shortfall of N199bn as at October 2012,” a part of the report read.
In the same vein, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was not left out of the rot, as it presented confusing accounting figures for its independent revenue in 2009 to the Committee during the investigation. While FIRS declared N5.6m for 2009, another sub-head of N323m was discovered during the review of the audited account.
To this extent, Abdulmumin Jubrin’s committee frowned at the non-compliance to the extant laws, including Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), noting that most of the reviewed agencies were found culpable of inadequately making returns to the treasury and preparing different sets of account.
In its recommendations, the committee urged the Federal Ministry of Finance to immediately commence investigations of other agencies that were not captured in the exercise in order to ascertain their status, saying agencies that have refused to cooperate with the Finance Committee to do so within seven days or risk the invocation of Section 89 of the constitution on them.
“The Ministry of Finance should compel agencies with outstanding balances to pay all outstanding remittances without further delay,” the committee advised.
“The Federal Ministry of Finance should, with immediate effect, ensure that all funds hidden in various agencies’ bank accounts should be mopped up and promptly remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and report to the Finance Committee within three months
