BEVERLY HILLS, October 24, (THEWILL) – The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under-Remittance and Other Fraudulent Activities has declared that a memo by a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, enabled revenue agencies to short-change the Federal Government to the tune of N1.7tn as unremitted revenue generated between 2012 and 2016.
Okonjo-Iweala allegedly issued the memo to the agencies to remit 25 per cent of revenue they generated to the Federal Government and spend 75 per cent on their expenditures.
This was revealed in an interim report by the Committee, chaired by Senator Olamilekan Adeola, which was submitted to the Senate last week, revealed that the amount to be remitted to the Federal Government during the period by the 93 agencies it investigated was N21.5tn.
It alleged that 25 of the 93 agencies covered defrauded the government of a total of N1,695,585,887,406 adding that the agencies chose to comply with a directive by Okonjo-Iweala via a memo dated November 11, 2011, with Reference Number BO/RVE/12235/259/VII/201 “to remit 25 per cent only from the revenue generated and use the remaining 75 per cent,”
The Committee declared that the directive is a clear violation of Section 120 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 as well as the establishment acts of some of these institutions.
According to the panel, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) ran at a deficit of N3.1tn, while the Nigeria Customs Service, which generated N335.855bn, failed to remit N83.963bn during the period under review.
The report also indicted the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which generated N455.5bn but allegedly failed to remit N33.83bn while the Nigerian Ports Authority reportedly remitted N86.636bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund when it generated N789.104bn.
Others indicted by the panel are the Central Bank of Nigeria, remitting N13.716bn out of N3.098tn; NIMASA, N184.489bn out of N301.160bn; Nigerian Television Authority, N5.567bn out of N56.817bn.
