Auditor says MDAs failed to remit sums between 2017 and 2019
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Another violation of law by the Muhammadu Buhari administration has been laid bare by the Auditor General’s finding that 15 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) fail to account for N127.13 billion meant for the treasury.
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) are among the MDAs that failed to remit the sum to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) between 2017 and 2019.
The Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF) made the disclosure in its 2019 annual report recently released.
Federal Auditor General Adolphus Aghughu had earlier revealed in his 2018 and 2019 reports that N3.14 billion is missing in the Finance Ministry.
That disclosure came after the first set of the reports earlier in 2020 had shown that N105,662,350,077.46 of public funds is missing, misappropriated or unaccounted for across 149 MDAs.
The latest figure from the OAuGF is contained in its “2019 Annual Report on Non-Compliance, Internal Control, and Weakness Issues in MDAs of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the year ended December 31, 2019” which was submitted to the National Assembly (NASS), per reporting by The PUNCH.
It said the CRF was created by Section 80(1) of the Constitution which states that
“All revenues or other sums of money raised or received by the Federation (not being revenues or other money payable under this Constitution or any Act of the National Assembly into any other public fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose) shall be paid into and form one [CRF] of the Federation.”
The report cited a finance circular dated November 11, 2011 which requires all agencies to limit their utilisation of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to not more than 75 per cent of gross revenue and that the balance of not less than 25 per cent be remitted to the CRF.
The OAuGF said despite the instruction, “the sum of N127,129,212,622.58 (One hundred and twenty seven billion, one hundred and twenty nine million, two hundred and twelve thousand, six hundred and twenty two naira, fifty eight kobo) was the amount of revenues/internally generated revenues not remitted to relevant authorities by fifteen (15) Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.”
__________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
Probe N3.14b missing in Finance Ministry, SERAP tells Buhari
ICPC discovers 257 duplicated projects in 2021 budget
Abuja blames high debt on firms dodging N7tr tax payment
__________________________________________________________________
Defaulting agencies
The MDAs the federal auditor said violated include:
- Nigeria Customs Service headquarters, Abuja
- Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research, Benin
- Veterinary Council of Nigeria; Kwali Area Council, Abuja
- Lagos University Teaching Hospital
- National Orthopedic Hospital, Lagos
- Federal Medical Centre, Keffi
- Federal Medical Centre, Ondo
- Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa
- Nigeria Ports Authority
- Council for Legal Education
- National Industrial Court of Nigeria
- Nigerian Immigration Service
- Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority (AIRBDA), Owerri
According to the report, the NCS had the highest unremitted revenue at N125.8 billion and AIRBDA the least at N5.3 million.
It said
- The aggregate of remittance discrepancies discovered in the NCS in 2017 was N125.8 billion.
- The first discrepancy was discovered upon examination of the summary of monthly revenue collection by the NCS in 2017 and its collections and remittances into the federation account in 2017.
Auditor asks NCS to account for mission sums
“The audit observed that in the report of NCS’s summary of monthly revenue collection in 2017, total collections for the federation account were N691.26 billion,” the report stressed.
“However, the report of NCS’s collections and remittances into the federation account in 2017 showed actual remittance into the federation account with the CBN for the year under review to be N629.23 billion.
“A comparison of these two documents revealed an under remittance of N62.24 billion.”
The report added that there was no footnote or any form of additional information attached to the two reports indicating the reasons for the discrepancy, neither was any form of communication of management’s intention for future reconciliation or remittance.
The auditor also found discrepancies in the reported revenue figures of the NCS in 2017, which led to under-remittance of N63.6 billion to the federation account.
On both occasions, when contacted, the NCS failed to offer any explanation for the discrepancies found in their records, the report said.
The OAuGF asked NCS Comptroller General Hameed Ali to account for the unremitted sums, remit, and forward the evidence of remittance to the Public Accounts Committees of the NASS.
It also asked Ali to “apply sanctions relating to failure to collect and account for government revenue as stated in paragraph 3112 of the Financial Regulations.”
The report said other irregularities in remittance to the federation account by the other 14 MDAs were discovered in their records between 2018 and 2019.
