L
LequteMan
Guest
Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has exposed high level of corruption in Nigeria's revenue generating agencies.
This is frustrating efforts at realising money from them by government she said. She especially singled out the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), which she described as “cohesive crocks hard to break”
On how revenue generating agencies are frustrating the government, she noted: “non-remittances by the revenue generating agencies is a big issue. We have done a lot of work on it. We are auditing about 31 of the agencies and what we found is very shocking, it’s very very shocking. That’s the only way to describe it.
“So, what we have done is that we have drafted a template with the Accountant-General and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, we are working together on allowable expenses for agencies.
“For example, is it acceptable for an agency to say, ‘I got N40 billion on behalf of a ministry?’ We believe that it should come through appropriation, you cannot say that you collect money on behalf of your parent ministry. That is how they are circumventing appropriation and I think that really has to be stopped.
“So, there are so many loopholes which honestly, we we can plug them, I think we will have a lot more money to work. And the friction between the civil service men and other agencies could reduce because honestly, there’s a lot of abuse.”
On how the National Assembly can help, Mrs. Adeosun said: “We will be sending that circular out to try an remedy it and when their accounts come, let them go an face the assembly when assembly would ask ‘why did you and your board members spent N50 million each in a years, why does somebody who was taught to go for training in Canada, go through about five countries before arriving in Canada and charge the agencies. It’s wrong but we saw a lot of that. So we believe this is an opportunity to open up on these things and we are looking forward to work very closely with you on these things.”
She also called for urgent intervention in curbing the loopholes and excessive leakage, not only in the revenue sourcing agencies, but also in all other agencies, saying they were stinking of corruption.
The Sun
This is frustrating efforts at realising money from them by government she said. She especially singled out the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), which she described as “cohesive crocks hard to break”
On how revenue generating agencies are frustrating the government, she noted: “non-remittances by the revenue generating agencies is a big issue. We have done a lot of work on it. We are auditing about 31 of the agencies and what we found is very shocking, it’s very very shocking. That’s the only way to describe it.
“So, what we have done is that we have drafted a template with the Accountant-General and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, we are working together on allowable expenses for agencies.
“For example, is it acceptable for an agency to say, ‘I got N40 billion on behalf of a ministry?’ We believe that it should come through appropriation, you cannot say that you collect money on behalf of your parent ministry. That is how they are circumventing appropriation and I think that really has to be stopped.
“So, there are so many loopholes which honestly, we we can plug them, I think we will have a lot more money to work. And the friction between the civil service men and other agencies could reduce because honestly, there’s a lot of abuse.”
On how the National Assembly can help, Mrs. Adeosun said: “We will be sending that circular out to try an remedy it and when their accounts come, let them go an face the assembly when assembly would ask ‘why did you and your board members spent N50 million each in a years, why does somebody who was taught to go for training in Canada, go through about five countries before arriving in Canada and charge the agencies. It’s wrong but we saw a lot of that. So we believe this is an opportunity to open up on these things and we are looking forward to work very closely with you on these things.”
She also called for urgent intervention in curbing the loopholes and excessive leakage, not only in the revenue sourcing agencies, but also in all other agencies, saying they were stinking of corruption.
The Sun
