The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee(FAAC) revelation that many revenue-generating agencies have continued to disregard government’s statutory financial regulations in remitting monies to the Consolidated Revenue Fund is one complaint too many. It signposts the level of financial malfeasance in most government agencies at a time the country is said to be almost bankrupt. This is unacceptable. The government should immediately rein in defaulting agencies to serve as a deterrent. According to FAAC, as of June this year, the unremitted funds had increased to N4.1 trillion. The latest disclosure is despite the agencies’ reconciliation and repayment of outstanding debts totaling N94.96billion in May, 2024.
This is contained in FAAC’s post-mortem subcommittee meeting report which was signed by the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission(RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu. Among the defaulting revenue generating agencies include the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), with unremitted amount of N940.6billion, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission(NUPRC) $23.8million and N1.94 trillion. There is also an unresolved remittance of $141.25million and N1.04trillion between the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the NNPCL. The Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have reportedly not remitted N48.75 million. This is a breach of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). As usual, no sanction has been imposed on any these agencies for the illegality.
The 2017 Audit Report of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) revealed that 16 revenue generating agencies failed to remit N20billion to the Federation Account. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) topped the list of unremitted revenues with N7.5billion. Other MDAs that defaulted are some Federal Government-owned universities. The report by the then AuGF Anthony Ayine noted that the affected revenue generating agencies wasted funds on unnecessary overhead expenditures and extra-budgetary expenses on frivolous contracts, thereby reducing their operating surpluses. Also, 26 MDAs that were audited in that financial year failed to remit about N1.65trillion.
In March 2012, a report by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts alerted that some MDAs violated statutory regulations which require them to remit the funds they generated to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The Committee specifically indicted the NNPC, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Ministry of Mines and Steel Development. The unremitted amount, according to the Senate Public Accounts Committee, was N10billion.
But the management of NNPCL explained that the amount debited against it was spent on fuel subsidy. This is probably why former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently faulted the nation’s corruption-ridden subsidy regime and called for a probe. The probe is timely. The failure of some MDAs to remit funds to government’s coffers raises doubts over government’s avowed commitment transparency and accountability in these agencies. The government should sanction the heads of the delinquent MDAs. The non-remitted funds came from Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Value Added Tax (VAT) and others.
Sadly, some top officials of the affected MDAs reportedly spent some of the funds on international travels and trainings without requisite approval from the appropriate authorities as specified in the extant circulars. The development has affected the financial liquidity of government hence the resort to binge borrowing. Let there be diligent oversight in the MDAs. Adequate sanctions against heads of the MDAs found indicted by the various audit reports must be strictly enforced.
The non-remittance of revenues should no longer be tolerated. A few years ago, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), raised the alarm over financial sleaze in 122 MDAs, which failed to remit N1.2trillion to the government. And in December 2018, the former Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, said that government-owned enterprises could not remit N10trillion as operating surpluses. He said that within that year, the agencies involved could only remit one per cent of the total amount they generated.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not spared, as the anti-graft agency was indicted by the AuGF report of having a “doubtful cash balance” of over N315 million. In 2020, the management of Department of Petroleum Resources told a Senate Public Accounts Committee that it in fact, remitted only N44.5billion out of about N2.4trillion it generated in 2019 financial year. This underscores the monumental corruption in the MDAs. Nigeria should not depend so much on borrowed funds when some officials in MDAs are feeding fat from government’s unremitted revenues. This is the time to end the malfeasance in the MDAs and instill the culture of transparency and accountability.