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The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has debunked claims that it’s incurred N17billion deficit in the 2021 budget. In a statement on Tuesday by its Director, Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, the Commission expressed concern with the inability of an online publication to accurately interpret the contents of its 2021 Annual Reports which have been made public.
“As a result, the publication gave a wrong impression that the Commission incurred a N17billion deficit because of expenditures on personnel and consultancy fees. This is far from the truth,” Muoka maintained.
While admitting that the N17.3 billion in the Statement of the Financial Performance of the Commission for the period ended December 2021 was a Surplus/(Deficit) retained for the period, the Spokeperson claimed that “this does not imply that the Commission incurred a cash deficit as the expenditure in its financials were both in cash and accruals applicable to the year.”
He emphasised that if the publication had gotten more information about the components of the Commission’s spending, it would have discovered that “the expenditures for the year 2021 included accruals for items undergoing procurement at the end of the year, like the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative, SABI, being implemented by the Commission, which was standing in the sum of about N24 billion in the financial report.”
“The Commission also remitted an Operating Surplus/Spectrum Fees of estimated N197.7bn to the Federal Government, under the same Financial Performance Reporting period, and had a bank balance of about N46.97bn, erasing any doubt that there was any deficit spending,” he added.
The NCC therefore, reaffirmed its commitment to using efficient and transparent procedures in all of its management, financial, and regulatory activities and disclaimed any inaccurate impression that the publication’s headline and subsequent misinterpretation of its financial report may have given to readers and stakeholders.
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