Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives, yesterday, insisted that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must remit 25 percent of their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the federation account, in line with extant laws.
Chairman, House Committee on Healthcare Services, Yusuf Tanko Sununu , stated this at budget defence session with agencies under the Ministry of Health.
Sununu said it was only through the accurate remittance of IGR by MDAs that the federal government will be able to fund the 2021 budget.
“Lets also try to emphasize that revenues generated by MDAs are supposed to be remitted to the Federal government in their right percentage.
“With that the amount of revenue needed to finance the budget every year will be drastically reduced. That is if all revenue generating MDAs remit what’s due to government in all honesty and truth — and as and when due.
“So this committee will do its due diligence in looking at the revenues of agencies under our purview and ensure that the right amount is remitted before consideration for their 2021 budget proposals,” Sununu said.
Meanwhile, the Committee has rejected the 2021 budget proposals of the Medical Science Laboratory Council of Nigeria, Radiographers Registration Council of Nigeria, the Nigeria Pharmaceutical Research Institute (NIPRI) and the Community Health Practitioners Registration Board, as they could not provide evidence that they remitted 25 percent of their IGR in the 2020 fiscal year to the federation account
Also, the Dental and Medical Council of Nigeria was turned back due to the absence of its chief executive.
Registrar and chief executive officer of Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, Tosan Erhabor, had told the committee that the council’s IGR was used to offset the running cost.
“The sum of N136m was generated so far this year but we are unable to remit the 25 percent as laid down by the rules due to covid-19 which led to putting on hold our inspection and accreditation of training courses from where more money comes in,” he explained.