Lawan said the major issue confronting the government is how to mobilise resources or revenues and tasked RMAFC on blocking all leakages.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has called for a better funding arrangement for the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
Lawan suggested, while playing host to RMAFC members in Abuja, that there should be a forum where all the three tiers of government are represented so there can be an agreement on how the commission can be better funded.
The RMAFC members were led by the chairman, Mohammed Shehu.
“The Commission is poorly funded through an enveloping system of the Bugdet Office under the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning. This inhibits the Commission from discharging it’s constitutional responsibility efficiently,” Shehu said.
“The Commission is the creation of the Constitution to oversee the affairs of three tiers of government. It is therefore an aberration to be funded by a tier of government through enveloping system.”
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Lawan responded, “Definitely there has to be a conscious effort at pulling some reasonable and significant resources for RMAFC to be able to perform.
“At the moment, it’s only what the Federal Government gives. That is shortchanging RMAFC because it is supposed to have resources also from the states and Local Government.”
Lawan said the relevant Senate Committee would look into the matter with a view to reviewing the situation to see how the other tiers of government could participate in the funding of the commission.
Lawan said the major issue confronting the government is how to mobilise resources or revenues and tasked RMAFC on blocking all leakages.
“We have to look at all the possible areas of leakage and work hard to block them. Where we are not covering enough, we have to step out. RMAFC knows where we have to collect these revenues.
“Today, they will tell you that the problem of Nigeria is revenue. Yet we sit on top of wealth and revenues. If you look at our solid mineral sector, it is something that can fetch us a lot of revenues but maybe because of the oil and gas, we are not giving it any serious attention,” the Senate President said.