As preparations for the 2020 budget defence get
underway, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has called on the Senate to prevail on the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other revenue-generating agencies to
comply with the statutory requirements vis-a-vis the examination of their
remittances to the Treasury Single Account (TSA), revenues and expenditures.
By the enabling law-the Fiscal Responsibility Act
(FRA, 2007)-the Fiscal Responsibility Commission is mandated among others: ‘To
compel any person or government institution to disclose information relating to
public revenues and expenditure, and cause an investigation into whether any
person has violated any provisions of this Act.
‘If the Commission is satisfied that such a person
has committed any punishable offence under this Act or violated any provisions
of this Act, the Commission shall forward a report of the investigation to the
Attorney-General of the Federation for possible prosecution’.
The acting Chairman of the Commission, Victor Muruako, who cried out for support and
compliance when the Senate Committee on Finance invited all
revenue generating agencies in the country for a briefing on the state of
affairs of the agencies under the parliamentary oversight of the Committee, called out the agencies for
ignoring FRC's enquiries.
Murako, who was responding to questions from the
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola (Lagos),
said by the provisions of the Act, the
commission is expected to monitor all expenditure and revenue generated by the
123 revenue agencies in the country, regretting that its requests to scrutinise
the books of the agencies were always ignored.
According to him, "We write numerous letters
to all revenue generating agencies to intimate us of their financial dealings
as per revenue generated but they don't respond to any of our requests.
"We are not impostors, we are authorised by
the letters of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 to look into their books
as regards how much generated and how much remittances made to the Treasury
Single Account (TSA). But they don't
respond as at when due.
"At times, it takes as long as six months
before they will even respond, and when they respond, they leave out the main details that we are
looking for, which is how much revenue
generated and how much remitted and retained as stated in the establishment
acts."
Muruako said one of the major duties of the Fiscal
Responsibility Act is to prevent revenue leakages, urging the Senate to enforce
the duties of the commission so as to avoid revenue leakages..
He also complained of shortage of funds in the
day-to-day running of the committee, including the payment of rents to their
landlord, explaining that by their establishment act, "our funding is
expected to be done through administrative fiat from the Office of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF)."
Murako came to the Senate briefing with all the
directors of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
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