FG to punish officials of agencies guilty of revenue diversion

FG to punish officials of agencies guilty of revenue diversion – Adeosun

The Federal Government will deal with top officials of agencies that divert revenues instead of paying same to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun made the disclosure in an interview with State House reporters after yesterday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
She was answering questions regarding heads of agencies that had collected revenues in dollars and remitted same in naira.
Currently, KPMG and PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC) are carrying out a forensic audit on agencies such as Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA).
Others are Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC), among others.
The minister said: “On the issue on the heads of (revenue) agencies that remitted monies in naira instead of dollars, what I would say is, let’s see the results of those audits because it would be unfair to pre-empt the outcomes of those audits.
“The reason why we’re having the process is that in the past nobody was punished. So, some people have been spending as they please. So, we’ve to look at how you’ve been spending.
“We’ve done a comprehensive audit of all the agencies that actually collect money in foreign currency and remit in naira. The requirement is that such monies should go to the CBN which should exchange the money into naira…we’re now doing an audit to identify other agencies, but what we’ve identified is that the agency concerned was (NIMASA).
“But we discovered that there are other agencies we have not identified that also collect funds in foreign currencies, including our foreign missions.
“We’re doing a full audit of all those accounts and to ensure that all those revenues now are converted in accordance with the extant procedures and guidelines.”
“Under FRA, these boards and corporations who generate our revenue are supposed to generate an operating surplus, 80% of which is to be credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“But we’ve discovered that many agencies have never credited anything and never generated any operating surplus including some whose salaries and overhead capital is paid by the federal government.
“We also discussed that in some cases, because some agencies have a track record and history of making sure that every naira they earned is spent, that we’ll go in and audit agencies under Section 107 (8) of the Financial Regulations.
“The Accountant-General, who is under the Ministry of Finance, has the powers to go in and make inquiries about how public money is spent.
“So, we’ll be sending in auditors to some agencies where we believe everything that their cost is simply excessive and not in keeping with our expectations.
“The expected outcome of this is that the internally generated revenue which the new budget is banking on will actually become a reality. That was the principal discussion and everybody in the cabinet endorsed the initiative.
“We’re going to make every naira count and in order to make every naira count, we have to know how much is coming in and control how it goes out.
“All the ministers concerned agreed that enough is enough, and they even identified boards and agencies under them where they know that revenue is being diverted. So, the key message is that change has now come to those agencies, boards and corporations who had been hitherto operating without any control”, she added.
“They generate revenue which they spend without any form of control. So, one of the big initiatives and changes of this administration is to bring all those agencies into line, to insist that they must submit a budget, that their budget must be subject to approval and they must operate within that budget so that the surplus meant to come to the federal government can be seen to be used as appropriate.
“For clarification, let me explain that in non-oil economies, these are revenues of government. It was because we had oil in the past that nobody has ever really looked at MDAs, NCC, some many agencies so many boards of government in their hundreds.
“We had issued a circular in December requesting that they send us their budget and what we discussed today (yesterday) was the responsibility of the ministers to ensure that whether those agencies have boards or not, those budgets are prepared”, she stated.