FG May Lose N1trn Over Non-Remittance Of Funds

The Acting Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Mr. Victor Muruako, has said the federal government may be losing over N1 trillion due to the non-remittance of operating surplus. He made this disclosure in Abuja, when he led the management of the commission on a courtesy visit to the Minister of Budget & National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma.

He said agencies have achieved their art of defrauding the country through wrong calculations, express diversion of funds, application of wrong accounting standards and non-inclusive listing of all government corporations under the FRA, 2007.

However, he also disclosed that the commission is already partnering with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to ensure strict implementation of government policies and revenue drive. Muruako said that on its part, the commission had so far caused over N360 billion to be remitted into the consolidated revenue fund (CRF).

He said the commission was ready to do more, chiefly with the falling oil revenue and the apparent need to diversify the government revenue base, noting that it had come up with a new template for determining operating surplus to ensure proper remittance of revenue.

“The Commission is poised and ready to partner with your ministry to engage government agencies who hide under various excuses to shortchange the Federal Government,” he said.

He, however, appealed to the Federal Government to set the overall debt limit for the amounts of consolidated debt of the Federal Government in compliance with section 42 of the FRA, 2007. Doing this, he said, would enhance the commission’s efforts in effectively monitoring borrowings by all tiers of the government, particularly the State Governments, he stated in a statement by FRC, Head, Press Unit, Abdulganiyu Aminu.

However, Udoma commended the efforts of the Commission in recovering operating surplus from the MDAs, adding that FRC’s stance on prudence and accountability was in line with the Federal Governments zero tolerance for corruption and wastage in public finance.