House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara yesterday blamed irregular payment of salaries by the federal and state governments on non-remittance of revenue generated by federal agencies into the federation account.
He spoke at the opening of a four-day investigative hearing into alleged under-remittances of revenue to the federation account.
The investigation was conducted by the James Abiodun Faleke-headed ad-hoc committee.
But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told the panel that it has no records of unremitted funds by the MDA.
Dogara, who was represented by Jerry Alagboso (PDP, Imo), frowned at the constant clashes between the Finance ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over revenue remittances and figures.
He said: “When government is making efforts toward diversifying the economy in order to reduce the country’s over-reliance on the oil sector, it is disheartening to hear repeated allegations of non-remittances of huge amounts of revenue by agencies required to generate and manage our revenue.
“You may recall that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in July was stalemated, two or three times, due to controversies over unremitted revenue.
“This led to delays in the payment of salaries by the federal and state governments and other budgetary expenditures in most federal government agencies and establishments.”
The speaker said the continuous bickering, with respect to revenue remittances and figures between the ministry of Finance and NNPC on one hand, and state governments and revenue generating organs of the Federal Government on the other hand, show some of the many instances of unending issues of revenue leakages in our economy.
Dogara said: “With the dwindling oil fortunes and the spirited efforts being made in the country to diversify our economy base, there is no gain saying the fact that closing up leakages in our economy has become imperative if we must grow our economy and accelerate the development of the country at this period of economic downturn.”
However, the CBN Director of Banking Services, Dipo Fatokun, represented by Jack Okituetu, an acting director, said the apex bank has no records of under remittances.
He said: “We don’t have any record of under remittances as CBN is simply a government bank. We’ve never falsified reports as all the revenue agencies have access to their various accounts and we are not also a revenue collecting agency of government.”
Ad-hoc committee chair Faleke expressed hope that the outcome of the ongoing investigation will help to reposition the revenue generating system at all levels of government towards adequately achieving the goals and mandate of the committee.
His words: “Apparently the picture being envisaged after now is a Nigerian economy devoid of leakages, with more available funds required to leverage on the many opportunities that abound.”
He, however, expressed concern over the level of impunity being perpetuated by the agencies, pointing out that they perpetrate impunity.
Faleke expressed the determination of the House not to compromise the country’s future.
His words: “The current state of affairs in Nigeria shows a crunch and cash-strapped economy that seems to be crawling at a slow pace out of recession.
“This has occasioned a bizarre situation where state governments can barely pay salaries, with borrowing categorising a large chunk of government spending and overall budgetary expenditure being adversely affected by dwindling revenues.
“Yet the current system has continuously encouraged unpatriotic Nigerians to device ways of diverting our revenues for their personal use at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable aged persons, pensioners, our teachers and civil servants as well as the sick and down trodden.
“Thus, it could be right to assert that given a transparent and accountable revenue remittance system, we would successfully reduce the overdependence on oil as well as the large amounts of borrowing evident in our society.”
To the CBN, he said: “We demand for a comprehensive list of all mandates given to your bank to make it a complete process.
“We want to see precisely how all the transactions were made and FAAC transaction so far till date.
Okituetu promised to make available all the mandates all the next sitting of the committee.