Reps accuse agencies of inaccurate revenue remittance, threaten to block accounts
The House of Representatives has accused some Federal agencies of reporting inaccurate revenue to the nation’s coffers.
The lawmakers made this accusation on Monday when out of eight agencies that were invited to appear before the Committee on Monday, only two (Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria; National Health Insurance Authority) honoured the committee invitation.
Speaking at the resumed revenue monitoring exercise of the committee on Monday, Vice Chairman of the committee, Saidu Abdullahi (APC, Niger) said, “We expected eight agencies to appear before the committee today, but only two agencies came, while two others wrote to request for another date and they were granted.”
“However, four other decided to abscond. That was the same word I used last year that did not go down well with some of the agencies. They have decided to play truancy on an assignment that is very important. If members can turn out in large numbers for this assignment, I don’t see any reason why any agency will decide not to appear before the committee.
“Let me put on record that we hope to have these agencies appear before the committee: Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, National Broadcasting Commission, National Examination Council and National Inland Waterways Authority.
“We expect them to make an appearance by tomorrow, Tuesday. If they fail to appear before this committee, we may be forced to take appropriate actions. We may write to the Office of the Accountant General to block their account
“We will not take it lightly with any agency because this is an assignment that is very important to this country. We talk about revenue and if we cannot collect the revenue accruing to his country, I think there is a big problem.”
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance also threatened to block the accounts of government agencies that have refused to tender accounts of their revenue profile or render accurate remittance to the government.
The Committee frowned at the refusal of some of the agencies to appear before the committee despite invitation extended to them.
The Director of Finance and Account with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Musa Jemaku who appeared before the committee however expressed dismay at the AGF’s comments regarding the revenue remitted by the agency.
Jemaku who said that the agency has paid about N800 million to the government this year also faulted the AGF’s claim that they have only paid about N602 million to government coffers.
He explained that there is a circular from the office of the Minister of Finance for the implementation of the Finance Act 2020, adding that the circular automated the process of paying the 50 percent deduction, adding that “the AGF should be in a better position to answer the question on why the system could not deduct the correct 50 percent for the period.
“On a lighter note, let me say that this is not the avenue for the AGF to draw our attention to the none payment or operating surplus when there is no official communication from them to the agency.”
A representative of the Office of the Accountant General however inisited that the FRC has not remitted its operating surplus for 2019 (N126 million), 2020 (N143 million) and 2021 (N26) million to the government coffers adding that the operating surplus for 2021 has not been fully calculated because the agency has not submitted its audited accounts for 2021.
