The federal government yesterday disclosed that it had discovered
more agencies collecting foreign currencies and remitting same in naira
to the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN).
In a similar vein, the government has refuted reports that President
Muhammadu Buhari withdrew the 2016 budget proposal from the National
Assembly.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari, minister of
finance, Kemi Adeosun, said an audit of all agencies that collect money
in foreign currency and remit in Naira had been done.
She said, “We have 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.
“What we discovered, some agencies, as you said, have been doing
that. We have stopped it, but we are now doing an audit to identify
other agencies, but why we have identified is that’s the agency
concerned was NIMASA.”
The minister disclosed that other agencies had also been discovered
to collect funds in foreign currencies, including foreign missions,
adding that “we are doing a full audit of all those accounts and to
ensure that all those revenues are now converted in accordance with the
extant procedures and guidelines.”
She also stated categorically that the budget is not being withdrawn
or replaced; but that it had been presented and will go through the
normal process whereby MDAs will defend their budgets.
There
had been reports that President Buhari had written to the National
Assembly requesting to withdraw the N6.08 trillion budget proposal he
had presented in December 22, 2015.
She said, “Let me just speak to you about the budget process. You
know the budget is presented to the NASS and then there is what we call
an interactive budget approval process, and you know the agencies will
still go and defend their budget at the NASS.
“So ordinarily, in budget processes anywhere in the world, there can
be amendments to the budget arising from that interactive process, which
is normal.
“But let me make it very clear; the budget is not being withdrawn or
replaced. The budget has been presented and it will go through the
normal process whereby MDAs defend their budgets.
“It is possible in the process of that, because, as you know, the
legislature is not a rubberstamp – their job is to scrutinize the budget
and to approve that budget, so there may be some changes that occur as a
result of that interactive process, but that process is normal
everywhere in the world where a budget is presented. So I think it is
important to make that clarification.”
She further explained that the principal discussion in the FEC
meeting was the initiative by the federal government to plug leakages in
revenue generating MDAs.
She said the presentation to FEC was to remind ministers who
supervise these revenue generating boards of their responsibilities
under the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The finance minister also lamented that the government had discovered
that many agencies had never credited any funds and never generated any
operating surplus, including some whose salaries, overheads and capital
are paid by the federal government. According to her, these agencies
generate revenue and spend it without any form of control.
Making clarification, she explained that in non-oil economies, these
are the revenues that the government runs on, adding that it was because
Nigeria had oil in the past that nobody had really bothered to pay
attention to the MDAs as a revenue stream.
“Let me remind you that under FRA, these boards and corporations
which generate revenue are supposed to generate operating surplus, 80
percent of which is to be credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“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, that budget must be subject to approval and they must
operate within that budget so that the surplus that is meant to come to
the federal government can be seen to be used as appropriate.
“The expected outcome of this is that the internally generated
revenue (IGR) which the new budget is banking on will actually become a
reality.”
Adeosun insisted that government revenue cannot continue to leak as had been the case in the past.
“We are 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,” the minister said.
“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 of those corporations, which had hitherto been operating without
any control, as we are reining them in and making sure that money
generated for all Nigerians is spent according to approvals and any
surplus then comes into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to be used
to fund other areas of government.”
On the alleged ‘padding’ (inclusion of suspicious items for
fraudulent reasons) of the budget by MDAs, she described any agency that
is thinking of doing that as unpatriotic and unserious in view of the
current price of crude oil.
“To answer that question,” the minister said, “let me give a context:
oil price has come down from $112 to $34-$35; anybody that is talking
about padding any budget when there is no revenue is just not serious.
It is unpatriotic and unrealistic.
“There can be no padding of budget when revenues are so thin and one
of the things that I think that the budgeting process is doing is
pruning down unnecessary expenditure.”
According to her, the government is going to set up the Efficiency
Unit which is going to look into how money is spent, and how to make
savings “because the money just isn’t there.”
“I don’t think this administration is part of that and, secondly, I
think, at this level, I don’t think there can be anything like that,”
she said.
SOURCES;leadership news
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