The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has listed Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and four other government agencies as serial offenders in the crime of non-remittance of statutory revenue to government coffers, an act which it says is denying the Federal Government of billions of Naira.
According to the FRC, the spate of disregard to the fiscal laws of the country by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has led to loss of billions of Naira to the coffers of government.
A report that has just been released by the FRC lists other agencies that are flouting the rules to include: the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Electricity Commission (NERC) and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).
The FRC however stated in the report that some 22 agencies remitted a total of N687,825Billion as operating surpluses to the consolidated revenue fund of government between 2007 and 2015. This performance indicates that the government could have raised trillions of naira as operating surpluses from its agencies had there been full compliance to the fiscal law.
The report tagged ‘2015 Annual Report and Audited Accounts of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission’ released recently specifically listed the BPE, NCS, NERC, NSTIF as agencies that have never remitted any operating surplus to government purse as required by law between 2007 when the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) came into effect and 2015 when the Commission capped the period of the study.
On NIMASA, the report said: “The Commission’s investigations into the NIMASA’s non-compliance with its statutory responsibilities under Part IV of the Act which began in 2012 is still on-going. There have been several meetings and inspection/investigation visits undertaken since the, but the issues are yet to be fully resolved.” The Commission however acknowledges that “one contributory factor is the constant changes in the management of the agency.”
As for the Customs, it was gathered that the service failed to comply with the law because of its neglect of standard accounting principles in running its affairs as the “Customs until recently did not maintain a standard accounting/auditing template with respect to its internal operations,” according to a source who craved anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
According to the report, “the BPE is perhaps the most recalcitrant and refractory amongst all the agencies/corporations mentioned herein being that it has continued, with impunity, to refuse/fail to pay/remit the sum of N81,814,000 into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, being 80% of its Operating Surplus for 2007 as disclosed in its approved audited financial statements despite series of meetings and briefings over the years. It has also been non-compliant in other issues relating to submission of its approved budgets, scheduled estimates of its revenue and expenditure for the next three financial years (similar to MTEF) and audited accounts for 2012 to 2015 financial years.”
Frustrated by the BPE’s serial flouting of the law, the Commission said “as consequence of the BPE’s deliberate, flagrant and disdainful disregard of its compliance obligations under the FRA 2007 notwithstanding the prolonged indulgence of the Commission which clearly amount to a brazen violation of the extant provision of the Act, the Commission is now left with little option other than to act in accordance with the provision of Section 2(2) of the FRA 2007.”
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