The Fiscal Responsibility Commission has said that many defaulting ministries, departments and agencies have been remitting the N1.5 trillion revenue they withheld from the government coffers.
The commission also said that the government was in the process of reviewing and updating the calculation template to check under-remittances of revenue by MDAs.
Disclosing this at a training workshop for accounting officers of MDAs, organised by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative to boost Federal Government revenue in Abuja on Thursday, the Chairman of the commission, Mr Victor Muruako, explained that the calculation template makes the agencies know what they ought to remit to the government.
The FRC boss said it was important that the government strengthened its revenue mobilisation strategy leveraging on improving remittance of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund by the 122 schedule corporations covered by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
Responding to questions on the non-remittance of N1.5trn withheld by 33 agencies, he stated, “Some of the agencies have started remitting part of the withheld revenue. I don’t have the amount remitted so far because the money is remitted to the government coffers and the data is with the ministry of finance.”
Speaking on the new remittance calculation template for MDAs, Muruako said it makes the operators, particularly, Director of Finance and Accounts, the heads of accounts, audit to know what they ought to remit.
The lawyer further explained that his commission had issues with the calculations contained in the audited financial statements submitted by government agencies.
“You find a situation whereby after reviewing their audited financial statements, we will return some of their expenditures back to them and calculate it as part of the revenue they owed to the government. We normally have that conflict with them but a good understanding of the template for calculation of operating surplus will help them to know. They would even know it when they are flouting the law,” the FRC chair noted.
Muruako stated that every agency, by matter of operation, earns one form of revenue or the other which they must remit to the government, stressing that the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 had made this mandatory.
He added that the ongoing amendment of the Act would stipulate punishment for errant MDAs.
The PLSI Chief Executive, Mr Segun Elemo maintained that the inability of MDAs to determine what was due to the government from revenue generated had contributed to the increased deficit in the annual budgets, adding that this was responsible for the growing debt burden and cost of debt servicing.
He said, “Accountability is a dual way (revenue and expenditure) and our organisation, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, is not just about ensuring efficiency in public expenditure, we are also committed to accountability in revenue generation.”
