By Nathaniel Zacchaeus and Chukwudi Obasi, Abuja
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance yesterday set up a special panel to probe a revenue shortfall of N4trn due to indiscriminate waivers by government agencies.
This was as the joint committee, co-chaired by Senator Sani Musa and Rep James Faleke, held a hearing to probe the revenue profiles of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) ahead of the 2025 budget.
The hearing was to enable the Senate and House of Representatives Committees to develop accurate and realistic revenue projections for 2025.
The panel to probe the shortfall followed a motion moved by Senator Adamu Aliero.
Moving the motion, Aliero said, “Due to the issue of waiver, there is a serious shortfall between what is supposed to be collected as revenue and what is actually collected.
“From our record, over N5.9trn was supposed to be the consolidated revenue fund of the federation. But we only have N1.9trn. We need to set up a special committee that will investigate this serious anomaly.
“We cannot continue to allow revenue agencies to spend money without the National Assembly. If someone is given a waiver, we must find out who gave that waiver. A shortfall of over N4trn is not a small amount.
“We found out that over N 4.9trn has not been remitted. We should set up an investigative committee that would investigate all the money that has not been remitted,” he said.
Musa, the committee co-chairman, said the committee was aware that many GOEs collect revenues from other sources and never disclose them.
“Some of them even disclosed this to the budget office. We’ve been able to get all those, and we have all done our scrutinisation. We believe that GOEs and heads of departments here will be able to open up and give us more details of how these revenues are sourced.
“We have also examined their expenditures. Imagine an agency collecting revenue, with sales expected to be self-funded.
“Funds that are supposed to be remitted to the consolidated revenue fund are never done. From now on, we will block that leakage and do the needful. We will scrutinize the expenditures of these GOEs because a GOE will collect 100 percent of revenue. Its expenditure shows that it’s spending about 95 percent of the revenue it collects. So this is the avenue to find a lasting solution to those leakages.”
While presenting the 2025 appropriation bill before the National Assembly, he pointed out that the President mentioned the importance of agency heads appearing before the National Assembly to defend their budgets.
He said MDAs should not be surprised to see that they receive zero allocation if they are unable to present themselves and defend what they have presented to the budget office.
The Joint Committee on Finance threatened to stop the Federal Government’s grant to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in the 2025 budget proposal.
The committee queried the presentation by the JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, who said that the agency remitted N4bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund while receiving a grant of N6bn from the federal government.
The committee queried why an agency that funds itself should be getting allocations from the Federal Government.
JAMB was also queried about other issues, including allocating N1.1bn for refreshments and meals in the 2025 budget proposal.
Oloyede attempted to clarify more but was directed to return in three days with a more comprehensive presentation.
The committee also questioned the Federal Road Safety Corps for not remitting the N8bn it generated in 2024.
This followed the presentation by the Deputy Corps Marshal, representing the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, who said though they had a target of N10bn, they generated N13bn.
However, the committee queried the FRSC for remitting only N5bn of the amount.
“You had a target of N10bn but generated N13bn but only remitted N5bn. So you bring the balance. You need to furnish this committee with details of the unremitted fund,” Senator Sani directed.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Atiku Bagudu said the 2024 budget is the first full-year budget of the present administration.
He said the lessons learned from 2024 formed the basis of the assumptions in the 2025 budget, which is designed to generate more revenue for the government and provide solutions for the economy.
He said GOEs must do better and urged all government agencies to cooperate fully with the National Assembly.
Agencies that were invited include the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, Nigeria Shippers’ Council, Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Nigeria Customs Service, Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigeria Communication Commission, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerian Port Electricity Training, and Security and Exchange Commission.
