SAN FRANCISCO, January 29, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government and State Governors in its National Economic Council (NEC) meeting has revealed its intention to probe and conduct forensic audit on 81 government revenue generating agencies.
This was disclosed at a joint briefing, after the 65th NEC meeting, by Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning; and three governors – Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos), Willie Obiano (Anambra), and Abubakar Baderu (Jigawa).
The decision was reached following the submission of an interim report by the ad hoc committee of NEC, chaired by Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo state, to review the management of the excess crude account and remittances into the federation account.
According to Ambode, 18 core revenue generating agencies, such as NNPC, will be audited by KPMG, while an indigenous firm, SIAO, will audit other non-core revenue generating agencies adding that NEC would take further action on the agencies at the completion of the forensic audit.
Obiano, in his account, gave a report concerning some government agencies who were in the practice of collecting revenue in foreign currency and remitting same in local currency into the federation account.
He revealed that the permanent secretary of the ministry of finance reported that besides NNPC, NIMASA and NPA, other agencies involved in such practice were FIRS, Shippers Council, Airport Authority and Nigeria Immigration Service.
Obiano added that the official reported that the introduction of the treasury single account (TSA) had resolved the problem as all account was now under the CBN.
Story by David Oputah
