15 MDAs yet to remit N127bn – audit report

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BY ABUBAKAR H. MUHAMMAD, JANUARY 4, 2021 | 12:59 PM


The federal government has disclosed that 15 ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, have failed to remit a sum of N127.13 billion revenue to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, CRF, between 2017 and 2019.

Office of the auditor general of the federation, AGF, made the disclosure in its 2019 annual report on non-compliance, internal control and weakness issues in federal government MDAs for the year 2019.

According to the report, which was submitted to the national assembly, the MDAs are Nigeria Customs Service, NCS; Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research; Veterinary Council of Nigeria; Lagos University Teaching Hospital; National Orthopedic Hospital, Lagos; and the Federal Medical Centres in Keffi, Yenagoe and Ondo.

Others include the Nigeria Ports Authority, Council for Legal Education, National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Nigerian Immigration Service, and the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority, Owerri.

The report indicated that NCS, with N125 billion unremitted revenue, had the highest amount while the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority, Owerri had the least amount of N5.3 million.

Also, the sum of N125.8 billion is the aggregate of remittance discrepancies discovered in the records of the NCS in 2017.

‘The audit observed that in the report of NCS’s summary of monthly revenue collection in 2017, total collections for the federation account were N691.26bn

‘However, the report of NCS’s collections and remittances into the federation account in 2017 showed actual remittance into the federation account with the CBN for the year under review to be N629.23bn. A comparison of these two documents revealed an under remittance of N62.24bn,’ the report stated.

The report added that there was no footnote or any form of additional information attached to the two reports indicating the reasons for the discrepancy, neither was any form of communication of management’s intention for future reconciliation or remittance.

The AGF advised the comptroller-general of Customs to account for the unremitted sums, remit, and forward the evidence of remittance to the Public Accounts Committees of the national assembly or apply sanctions relating to failure to collect and account for government revenue as stated in paragraph 3112 of the Financial Regulations.

The CRF was created by Section 80(1) of the 1999 Constitution which states that ‘all revenues or other sums of money raised or received by the Federation (not being revenues or other money payable under this Constitution or any Act of the National Assembly into any other public fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose) shall be paid into and form one Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.’

According to the audit report, the finance circular issued on November 11, 2011, with reference number BO/RVE/12235/259/VII/201 requires all agencies to limit their utilization of internally generated revenue to not more than 75 per cent of the gross revenue while the balance of not less than 25 per cent should be remitted to the CRF.


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