- About 50 revenue-earning government agencies under-remit N2.3 trillion
Nigeria may be likened to a spoilt brat who has so much money to the point that he doesn’t know how to count anymore. At each point in time, our proverbial pampered one is awash with so much cash that he is unable to take stock of his total accruable income.
This typifies the story of Nigeria’s federal government today. A few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari warned Nigerians to tighten their belts as the economy is not looking good. Nigeria has garnered a foreign debt portfolio of about $11 trillion in the last four years, bringing the total debt stock of $22 trillion.
We go cap in hand to the Chinese and any other country as if we are a pauper nation. In the past decade, we have always had to borrow money at high costs to bridge budget deficits. But reports show that with little or no effort, Nigeria stands as perhaps the richest country in the world. Her problem remains that government officials are too corrupt, too lazy and too incompetent to gather up her revenues in one basket. These are revenues just lying around needing only to be gathered!
The story is that about 50 revenue-generating federal government agencies have under-remitted by a whopping N2.3 trillion since 2015. The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires independent government agencies that generate revenues to remit 80 per cent of their operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account.Most of the agencies have wilfully reneged on this.
Mr. Ben Akabueze, Director-General, Budget Office was so troubled by this brazen disregard for the law that he called a meeting of the heads of these agencies in Abuja recently. He described the revenue performance of some agencies as mostly insignificant. He said that out of a total target of N3.65 trillion since 2015, the actual revenue received over this period was N1.27 trillion.
For the 2018 fiscal year, out of a revenue target of N847.95 billion, only aboutN302.66 had been remitted to date. Akabueze moaned that about 50 government-owned enterprises that generate independent revenue have yet to remit their operating surpluses running into over N2 trillion.
Some of the major culprits listed by the DMO DG include: the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, among others.
Relatedly, notable lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), also last week lamented how billions of dollars are being withheld from the Federation Account. It was as the summit of the 2nd Anniversary of the whistle-blower policy of the Federal Government.
He regaled the audience of instances in which monies that ought to accrue to the federation coffers were withheld by individuals and corporate bodies. One of such instance is contained in a petition he had sent to the Presidential Panel on the Recovery of Public Property last year in which he accused Exxon Mobil of paying only $600 million out of $2.5 billion fixed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for the renewal of three oil blocks in 2009.Falana noted that even though the oil company claimed it paid the outstanding$1.9 billion, there is no evidence of such payment.
Ben Akabueze still addressing the agencies’ heads said, “The President has mandated that urgent corrective measures be taken and for this reason, we have gathered here today.
“Despite over N$40 trillion the Federal Government has invested in the agencies, what is usually remitted to the treasury … at the end of the year is insignificant.”
While we commend the government for eventually waking up to its responsibilities to tackle this heinous anomaly that borders on economic sabotage, we urge that more drastic measures be taken and immediately. We recommend that government should institute audit checks on a handful of these agencies with a view to sanctioning and even firing some of the erring heads and management teams.
Finally, there are tried and trusted methods of tracking revenues and technology have further simplified them. Government has simply been derelict in providing oversight and following its money; it must act quickly and stop wringing its hands!
