Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed said yesterday that 15 revenue-generating agencies of the federal government failed to remit N8.1 trillion to the Federation Account between 2010 and 2015.
He spoke in Osogbo, the Osun State capital while inaugurating the Channelization, De-silting, Flood Control and Development of Okoko and Ogbagba Rivers, phases one and two, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the discovery by the auditing firm KPMG is many times worse than the N1.34 trillion carted away by 55 public officials between 2006 and 2013.
“Recently, the Federal Government ordered an audit (between 2010 and 2015) of 15 government revenue-generating agencies. The result was the discovery that the agencies had not remitted over 8.1 trillion Naira to the Federation Account. This amount is about six times the N1.34 trillion that was stolen between 2006 and 2015.
”It is also the equivalent, on the average, of the country’s yearly national budget! Imagine, for a moment, how many kilometres of roads could have been constructed, how many kilometres of rail tracks that could have been laid, and how many modern hospitals and schools that could have been built if that money had been properly accounted for,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
He told the crowd at the ceremony that the Buhari Administration’s fight against corruption remained very
critical because it would free the much-needed resources for national development.
The minister said the projects being executed by the present administration, including the one that was inaugurated in Osogbo – one of 53 being inaugurted across the country – could have long been completed but for the mind-boggling looting of the treasury by previous administrations, which deprived the nation of infrastructural growth
He said every kobo that is not looted is a plus for development, adding: ”This is why we will not stop talking about those who have looted the public treasury, despite the pushback from their apologists. If we do not stop the looting of the treasury, there will be no money for the kind of projects we are commissioning (inaugurating) here in Osogbo today.”