*Mulls amendment of laws to cap spending, criminalise failure, delayed remittance to federation account
James Emejo in Abuja
The Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mr. Mohammed Bello Shehu has disclosed that the commission recently recovered the sum of N120 billion from revenue-generating agencies which had failed to remit their operating surpluses into the federation account as stipulated by law.
Shehu said the money would have been lost forever if the commission had not acted in good faith to enforce the recovery.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with THISDAY over the weekend, the RMAFC boss, explained that the commission got the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Economic Council to send consultants to the agencies leading to the recoveries.
He further disclosed that the forensic audit of the agencies was still an ongoing exercise.
Shehu also hinted that the commission would request the National Assembly to make the constitution superior to the laws establishing government agencies.
He said such amendments should also limit the amount the agencies are allowed to spend from the revenues they generate.
Shehu further said defaulting agencies must be criminalised if they failed to remit their surpluses to the federation within 12 months.
Specifically, he said the current practice where some agencies generate between N200 billion to N250 billion and spends about 95 per cent of that money thus remitting only about five per cent into the federation account should be discouraged by the National Assembly going forward- even if it means amending their laws.
Shehu said for instance, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and the Shippers’ Council must be mandated to, “remit whatever they get directly to the federation account, and not to allow them a free for all space whereby they can be spending that money.”
The RMAFC chairman added, “We do sometimes send in forensic experts to go and look into some of the books of some of these agencies and you’ll find that sometimes after FIRS and the accountant general’s office had finished their work, we recover monies.
“And we’ve just recovered over N120 billion from agencies and that money would have been lost forever – it was the commission that got the permission of the president and the economic council and sent consultants and some of this money was recovered.
“And it is still an ongoing exercise. You can imagine if we had that level of independence, training our workers to become like forensic accountants or auditors – that would be huge.”
Continuing, Shehu said, “I think we have to find a system whereby either those Acts are amended and make the Constitution supreme above their local laws; because the constitution says remit revenues to the federation account – they now counter and say our laws allow us to spend this money and whatever remains is what we remit to the federation.
“And you can see from every indication that the agencies just try to create a way to spend money not for the good of the system but for the good of that organisation.”
He noted: “I think we would request for the National Assembly to either amend the Acts of those agencies where they make huge amounts of money like N200 billion, N250 billion, and then some of them would spend like 95 per cent of that money and then they remit just about five per cent.
“So, I would want the National Assembly to really find a way to checkmate this by making the Constitution superior to the laws establishing government agencies – even if it means amending the laws of these organisations – and then make it mandatory for those big sharks like NCC, NIMASA, NPA, Shippers’ Council, as an example to be remitting whatever they get directly to the federation account, and not to allow them a free for all space whereby they can be spending that money.
“And I am not averse to even encouraging them by giving them collection fees and I have spoken about that in the Senate just as you give FIRS. When you collect, we encourage you, we give you a collection cost – a fee you can deduct. I am not averse to that, if that is workable, the commission would love to do that.”
Shehu however, noted that, “Traditionally, we never had any enforcement powers but thank God that now the National Assembly in the new proposed Amendment to the Constitution, there is a provision for some enforcement powers that will come to RMAFC.
“My vision is that just like you see EFCC, everybody starts to shiver, that’s eventually what I want to see; when agencies see RMAFC in a new jacket that we have come to either get information from you or to shut you down because you have not done this or that.
“This is my vision on how we can do this to encourage agencies to comply or even find a way whereby if you fail to remit any amount, we must criminalise it if within 12 months you do not remit that to the federation which is really wrong and I think we have to talk to stakeholders and come to an agreement and the commission is always open to that.”
