The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) yesterday said it was investigating six ministries, departments and agencies for allegedly contravening various sections of the FRC Act.
The Chairman of the Commission, Dr Aliyu Yelwa, announced this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He gave the names of the organisations as: Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC),
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) yesterday said it was investigating six ministries, departments and agencies for allegedly contravening various sections of the FRC Act.
The Chairman of the Commission, Dr Aliyu Yelwa, announced this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He gave the names of the organisations as: Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC),
Others are Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Presidential Implementation Committee on the Sales of Government Landed Property (PIC) and the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC).
Yelwa said that their offences ranged from non submission of Audited Annual Financial Reports to non-remittance of the agreed percentage of a corporation's profits to the national treasury.
According to him, “every year, every corporation must produce an audited financial report, it is from that report we check to see if they made profit or loss,“If they made profit, 80 per cent of that profit is to be returned to the Consolidated Account of the Federal Government, and 20 per cent can be in the organisation’s books.”
Yelwa specifically said that NIMASA was on investigation because it claimed to have remitted US$ 2 million (about N314 million) as operating surplus for the year 2009 but no evidence to substantiate the claim.
“NIMASA is also yet to redeem its pledge to submit its audited financial reports from 2007 till date.“In view of the flagrant disregard of all FRC’s requests by NIMASA, the commission’s legal unit is getting the legal backing to compel NIMASA to comply”, he stated.
Yelwa said that the case against the BPE was its refusal to remit N81.8 million to the national treasury, being its operating surplus for 2007.
He added that the act was against FRC law which stipulates that each corporation must prepare and publish its audited financial reports not later than three months after the end of each financial year.
“BPE is also said to have flouted the FRA (2007) Act for its late submission of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and approved budgets and financial accounts.’’
Yelwa said in the case of FAAN, the commission was currently compiling evidence against the agency to enable it to take action.
Also, the chairman said that NTDC was facing the commission’s searchlight for over spending without a supplementary budget provisions which violatede FRA Act of financial regulation.
The chairman further said that PIC’s case was on the sales of government landed property.
“The commission is awaiting response of the Central Bank of Nigeria to furnish it with bank statement of the PIC accounts to enable it to begin full investigation of lodgments and withdrawals made by PIC.’’
Yelwa said that the commission was also investigating NDDC for award of more than 50 contracts without budgetary approval or evidence of administrative transfer of funds.
The FRC boss said that when checking a corporation’s account, it was also mandated subtract extraneous expenses from the corporation’s expenditure.
“There are certain items of expenditure which we will not allow. If the expenditure looks unreasonable, certainly we will challenge it.
“If a company purchases a Helicopter for its head, we will not accept it in the computation of profit or loss.
“But if the corporation is able to convince us, we will let it go. But if it is not able to, then we have the right to investigate.’’
He said that the investigation was in line with the commission’s mandate to ensure accountability and transparency of fiscal transactions in the country.
The FRC boss said that the commission had 36 organisations under its supervision and its duties included checking the revenues and expenditures of the corporations.
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