The House of Representatives has expressed displeasure over the way some government agencies conceal their revenues, thereby denying the Federal Government the fund for budgeting.
The House criticised the way the country resorts to borrowing N5.62 trillion to finance deficit in the 2022 budget, while these agencies starve the government of fund.
James Faleke, the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, made this known at the ongoing public hearing on 2022 to 2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) on Thursday in Abuja.
“We are not happy the way Nigeria is borrowing N5.62 trillion and we have some fund somewhere staying fallow without being used.
“For God sake, let us build this country together for the sake of all of us,’’ he said.
Faleke said that the major problem facing the country was revenue generation, adding that the House of Reps would be more interested in how much government agencies could save.
He said that if the House of Reps discovered that any of the government agencies’ capital projects were unnecessary, they would be removed in a bid to get revenue for the country.
The committee also directed the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) to provide the turnover of amount realised from all network operators from 2018 to 2020.
Faleke said that this would enable the committee to look at their records and be able to determine if the revenue proposal for 2022 to 2024 would be good for the country.
Some of the agencies invited for the 2022 to 2024 MTEF and FSP public hearing are Nigeria Port Authority, Nigeria Communication Commission, Nigeria Copyright Commission, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission.
Others are Nigeria Meteorology Agency, Nigeria Postal Service, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Export Promotion Council and Nigeria Communication Satellite Ltd., among others.
Mr Emeka Iseogwu, the General Manager, Finance, who represented the Director-General of NPA, said that the agency was on course in terms of revenue generation.
He said that NPA was targeting N338 billion for revenue in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF), Mr Adolphus Aghughu, has said that no money was missing from the Federation Account.
Aghughu disclosed this in a statement by Eme Oqua, Head of Press, Office of the Auditor-General for the Federatio (OAuGF) in Abuja.
He was reacting to recent reports in the media, that N4.97 trillion was misappropriated from the federation account, after his appearance at the senate.
The AuGF explained that the ‘unsubstantiated balances of N4.97trillion’ mentioned in his address during submission of Consolidated Financial Statements of the Federal Government for 2019 to the Clerk of the National Assembly was not misappropriation of funds.
“The AuGF states the materiality was determined in the context of likely errors and unsubstantiated balances amounting to N4.97 trillion in the course of the audit, which was above the materiality level of N89.34Billion set for audit.
“This statement was made as one of the basis for ‘qualified opinion’, the qualified opinion notwithstanding, the Federal Government of Nigeria Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2019 was true and fair.
“The general public should be guided by the above clarifications as no money is missing from the Federation Account of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
