Every year, Nigeria operates two parallel budgets: the legitimate one by the Federal Government and the other by its agencies – implemented with revenues they generate, but fail to remit to government’s coffers. This has bred gargantuan corruption in our bureaucracy with some civil servants becoming billionaires overnight. Now, as the government grapples with the challenge of raising revenue to meet its obligations amid the global meltdown in crude oil prices, it has taken a panicky step to stem the tide.
A House of Representatives investigation in 2013 into how 60 federal agencies generated N9.4 trillion between 2009 and 2012, out of which they spent N9.1 trillion, set the ball rolling when it demanded that full effect be given to Section 80 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which states that all revenues should be remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
The House, in its report, had advised the Ministry of Finance to “ensure that all funds hidden in various agencies’ bank accounts be mopped up and promptly remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and report back to the committee within three months.” This was as of February 7, 2013.
But the government pointedly ignored the advice until last week, thereby ensuring that the agencies wreaked more havoc on public finances. Corralled more by the need to overcome the 2015 budget fiscal straits than by the imperatives of ensuring institutional rectitude and blockage of leakages, the Federal Government recently ordered the Ministries, Departments and Agencies to close their revenue accounts with the Deposit Money Banks by February 28, 2015.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, who gave the directive, added however that some big MDAs and autonomous agencies were reluctant to be brought into the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System and the Treasury Single Account. It is only corruption that could have fuelled such indifference.
According to the House report that formed the basis of government’s new initiative, out of N3.06 trillion generated in 2009, the agencies paid only N46.8 billion to government coffers. Similarly, N3.07 trillion was generated in 2010, but only N54.1 billion was paid in; just as N73.8 billion was paid in 2011 out of N3.17 trillion realised. The 2012 picture was no less different. The unremitted N9.1 trillion excludes the N6.132 trillion the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries generated between 2009 and 2011.
Abdulmumin Jibrin, the chairman, House Committee on Finance, which conducted the investigation, told the House in plenary that its discovery was very shocking. He said, “The agencies are simply bleeding this country dry. Not until we take drastic steps to stop them, huge funds that would have been used to execute capital projects will continue to go down the drain.”
This graft-ridden system has thrived for too long. The House, under Dimeji Bankole’s speakership, also probed how these agencies splurged N3.31 trillion they generated between 2003 and 2008. It, therefore, vowed to amend the Acts that established them, which empower them to spend the revenues they generate, to curb their reckless spending. These agencies have always sought refuge under these Acts that originated them. But the constitution is unambiguous in such a matter, as exemplified in Section 1 (3) that states: “If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of its inconsistency be void.”
Besides the NNPC, other revenue-yielding agencies include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, National Pension Commission, Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Since 2006 when these expenditures outside the national budget came under parliamentary scrutiny, Nigeria’s annual budget has not gone below N4 trillion. When this is added to the agencies’ unbudgeted spending, Nigeria’s real annual budget is in the region of N8 trillion. Little wonder that the CBN is involved in frequent mop-up of excess liquidity in the system.
Blame the executive arm of government for not showing leadership in halting the MDAs financial abuses; just as the National Assembly is no less culpable. The latter has enormous powers under the constitution to rein in errant government agencies. But it does not, simply because of the fact that many of its probes are not driven by public good, but by personal interests for which some lawmakers have been caught in the labyrinth of corruption.
Public interest should at all times be the motive for going into public service. If the parliament had acted in concert with its avowal to amend the agencies laws in 2008, when it discovered that the agencies had helped themselves with a staggering N3.31 trillion, the figure could not have spiked to N9.1 trillion in 2012.
As the big MDAs are hesitant to be hemmed by the new GIFISMIS and TSA writ, going by Otunla’s revelation, the reckless spending the order on closure of their revenue accounts with the banks seeks to halt might continue. Government, therefore, has to change its spinelessness in enforcing its own rules.
Consequently, its February 28 deadline to the MDAs is a crucial test of its will to determine if it is really in charge or not.
