In a bid to block leakages and improve internally generated revenue paid into Consolidated Revenue Fund, the federal government has finalized measures that will reduce the ability of its revenue-generating agencies to spend money at source and also set limits on their expenditure.

It was learnt that the measures were contained in a memo recently sent to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, detailing how most of the agencies spend almost 100 per cent of the revenue they collect on behalf of the federal government and remitting paltry sums to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Section 22(2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act requires theses agencies to generate an operating surplus, of which 80 per cent is to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). The balance of the operating surplus is meant to be transferred to the agency’s general reserve fund, notwithstanding the provisions of any written law establishing the agency.

The same act requires that these agencies submit annual budgets for approval by the National Assembly.
But in practice, many of these agencies fail to submit budgets and are thus able to generate and spend revenue without scrutiny or accountability.

The level of compliance with remittances into the Consolidated Revenue Fund is so low, with some agencies never having contributed any funds at all.

It was the same high degree of non-compliance that set the former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on a collision course with the management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) last year when her ministry was forced to withdraw operating surpluses from the accounts of the agencies with commercial banks in the country.

Credit: ThisDay