The Senate has considered an interim report of one its Adhoc Committees on the alleged mis-use, under-remittance and other fraudulent activities by revenue generating agencies. The report examined the collection, remittance and expenditure of Internally Generate Revenue (IGR) by the said agencies.

Presenting the report at its plenary session of Wednesday, 25 October 2017, Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Sen. Adeola Olamilekan (APC: Lagos) noted that the Committee was mandated by Senate to:

• Investigate all agencies and institutions of Government charged with the responsibility of generating, collecting, accounting and remittance of IGR;
• Investigate the level of compliance revenue of all generating agencies with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007
• Investigate the lapses and/or fraudulent activities in generating, collection, accounting an remittance of IGR by the agencies;
• Determine the actual amount generated, collected, expended and remitted to the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) from revenue generating activities between January 2012 to September 2016;
• Make recommendations from the observations and lapses found in the procedures and processes of revenue generation by revenue agencies to the Senate for onward submission to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and;
• Recommend any other activity within the mandate given to the Committee that could further assist Federal Government’s efforts to diversify its sources of revenue from Oil and Gas to the non-oil sectors.

Sen. Olamilekan stated that the Adhoc Committee had adopted the following modalities that allowed it to:

• Recognize and invite all revenue generating agencies in Nigeria to a public hearing and meeting to openly discuss and investigate all issues of revenue remittance to the CRA;
• Recognize all Federal Government agencies and institutions with the mandate to audit, disburse, record and keep revenue generated;
• Request from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) details and records of remitted funds by revenue generating agencies to the CRA;
• Request for records and details of disbursements of funds to the agencies by the Federal Ministry of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation (AGF); and
• Request for Audit reports on all revenue generating agencies with the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF).

According to him, the Adhoc Committee had identified over 600 revenue-generating agencies, which were further categorized into;

1. Fully funded Agencies, which comprises of agencies and institutions that derive both capital and recurrent expenditures from the Federal Government Budget.
2. Partially Funded Agencies, which are partially funded from the Federal Government’s annual appropriation and allowed by their enabling Acts to utilize part of the revenue it generates while remitting excesses to the CRA.
3. The Self Funding Agencies, which are not beneficiaries from the annual appropriations of the Federal Government. These agencies fund their own operations from revenue generated from their activities and are expected to remit certain percentage to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

Sen. Olamilekan then recommended Senate’s approval on the following on the basis of its findings and presentations from 52 out of the 600 revenue-generating agencies:

• That the Senate should amend laws that make it mandatory for all revenue generating agencies to accommodate resident auditors that are posted by the Auditor General of the Federation’s office. The resident auditors have access to all financial records and books and are responsible for ensuring compliance with Section 120 (i) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended);
• The FRA 2007 should be amended to compel all agencies and institutions of the government to comply with financial regulations regarding income generation, accounting and remittance;
• That the Senate should amend laws that make it mandatory for all revenue generating agencies to accommodate resident treasury officers posted by the Auditor General’s Office. The treasury officers shall have access to all financial records and books.
• That the National Assembly direct the immediate halt of the implementation of the contents of the Memo by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance and mandate all agencies and institutions to adopt the new mode of remittance as approved by the 8^th Senate;
• The FRA, 2007 should be further amended to make revenue generating agencies to pay 30% of their income generated monthly to the CRA before any expenditure;
• Operational systems of agencies or services like hospitals and educational institutions should be exempted from remitting funds to the CRF except where there is a surplus;
• The Federal Government should strengthen revenue generating agencies with the requisite manpower and qualitative staff;
• Where agencies have the capacity to carry out certain functions, it should not be contracted out to consultants. For instance, the activities of the Nigeria Immigration Service;
• Relevant Committees of the Senate should look into some of these agencies and its expenditure profile with the view to instilling prudent financial management and accountability;
• All commercialized government agencies should not be provided for in the appropriations of the Federal Government. For instance, NTA, FRCN, NEPZA, NIPC, NEPC, Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone etc.
• The Office of the Auditor General of the Federation should improve the procedures for implementing some of its activities; and
• The Federal Government should develop a plan to recover huge debts owed by NCAA, FAAN, AIB, NPA, NIMASA, TBS Management Board and Lagos Trade Fair Management Board by concessionaires to enable then meet up with their obligations to the CRF.

The Senate has mandated the Adhoc Committee to liaise with its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters with a view of providing resolutions to the legal issues and concerns identified in the aforementioned recommendations. The Adhoc Committee is expected to provide a full report in 6 weeks.

Click here to view the full interim report of the Adhoc Committee.