Senate Probe Alleged Leakages and Misuse of Generated Revenue

The Senate on Tuesday constitutes a 6 man high powered ad-hoc committee to investigate the misuse, under remittance/non remittance and other fraudulent practice in the collection, accounting agenciea of government from 2012 to 2016 and submit a report within 6 weeks.

The development follows a motion move by Senator Solomon Adeola representing (Lagos West). He said the section 80, subsection 1-4 of the 1999 Constitution as Amended stipulate that all revenue, money raised or received shall be paid into and form part of the consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

The Senator expressed concern that the Acting Chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission Victor Muruako on 8th of November 2016 raised an alarm over leakages in the revenue and remittance which he said has assumed alarming proportion in the last 5 years with some MDAs producing two different statement of account in an attempt to manipulate their operating surplus and losses.

Adeola further stated that at the last National Economic Council meeting, the Federal Government specifically accused revenue generating agencies of raising over N1.5 trillion and expending over 90 percent on recurrent expenditure mostly in paying bloated salaries and controversial allowances above Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Committee, monetization of medical allowances, unapproved overseas travels, lavish training allowance and excessive personal loan approval. “These Corporations, Agencies and Government owned Companies have over the years grossly violated the letter of the 1999 Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Act in relation to their revenue generation activities and expenditure” Adeola said.

He added that the various audit queries against these Agencies over the years further indicate possible mismanagement of public funds against the spirit of the Constitution and Fiscal Responsibility Act. “In view of Federal Government’s dwindling revenue from the traditional Crude Oil sector and the on-going recession, these government bodies are continuing in short changing Government of needed revenue through various illegal practices” he said.

Most of the Senators present at the sitting in their contribution supported the motion.  In his reaction, Senate President Bukola Saraki urged the ad-hoc committee to investigate the alleged financial misconduct by the various agencies.

Members of the Ad-Hoc Committee as announced by the Senate President are John Enoh, Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, Fatima Raji Rasak, Yahaya Abdullahi, Andy Uba and Solomon Adeola would serve as Chairman.