The Senate Committee on Finance has raised the alarm that some Nigerian Government-owned agencies has failed to remit over N2tn to the federation account from 2014 till date.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Solomon Adeola, stated this during his panel’s interaction with the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed; the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, and the Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, on Friday.
A video clip of the meeting released by the panel on Sunday showed the interaction session was in furtherance to the panel’s ongoing probe of federal agencies and ministries’ revenue remittances to the federation account.
Adeola said that ”over N2tn of revenue generated by the GOEs in the last seven years might be trapped with them or even spent on frivolous issues.”
He said such action was contrary to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic and the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.
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Investigation
The panel is currently conducting an investigation into the revenues being remitted by the MDAs between 2014 and 2020 and the payment of one per cent stamp duty on all contracts awarded by the MDAs within the same period.
Senator Adeola’s claim is coming at a time when the country is having deficit budget of N5.2tn.
Adeola noted with concern that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation was not firm enough in the collection of the Operational Surplus hanging in many agencies.
The operating surplus of an enterprise measures the difference between revenue and expenditure; that is, the surplus or deficit that is accruing from production.
PUNCH