From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance has resolved to probe a revenue shortfall of about N4 trillion arising from alleged indiscriminate waivers by federal government agencies.
The joint Committee adopted the resolution at its session to probe the revenue profiles of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as Government Owned Enterprises (GOE), yesterday, in Abuja.
Senator Adamu Aliero, in a motion calling for the probe, had raised concerns over revenue shortfalls owing to waivers.
“Due to the issue of waiver, there is a serious shortfall between what is supposed to be collected as revenue and what is actually collected.
“From our record, over N5.9 trillion was supposed to be the consolidated revenue fund of the federation. But we only have N1.9 trillion. We need to set up a special committee that will investigate this serious anomaly.
“We cannot continue to allow revenue agencies to be spending money without the National Assembly. If someone is given a waiver, we have to find out who gave that waiver.
“A shortfall of over N4 trillion is not a small amount. We found out that over N 4.9 trillion has not been remitted. We should set up an investigative committee that would investigate all the money that has not been remitted,” Aliero stated.
Co-chairman of the joint panel, Sani Musa, said the parliament was aware that GOEs do not declare all the revenues they generate and said the committee will scrutinise the revenues of GEOs.
“Some of them didn’t even disclose it to the budget office. We’ve been able to get all those and we have all done our own scrutinisation and we believe that GOEs and heads of departments that are here will be able to open up to give us more details of how these revenues are sourced.
“We have also looked at their expenditures. You can imagine an agency collecting revenue whereby it is expected that sales is self-funded.Funds that are supposed to be remitted to the consolidated revenue fund and it’s never done. I think from now on we are going to block that leakage and we will do the needful.
“We will scrutinise the expenditures of these GOEs because a GOE will collect 100 percent revenue and in its expenditure, you see that it’s spending about 95% of that revenue it collected. So this is the avenue at which we are able to find a lasting solution to those leakages.”
The lawmakers threatened to stop the Federal Government’s grant to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation (JAMB). They faulted the presentation by JAMB that it got a N6 billion grant from the government and remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
It also queried JAMB over a proposal to spend N1. 1 billion for meals and refreshments in the 2025 fiscal year. Consequently, the committee directed the JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede to return in three days with a more comprehensive presentation.
Similarly, the panel queried the Federal Road Safety Corps for failing to remit N8 billion of the N13 billion it generated in 2024. The Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, who was represented by a Deputy Corps Marshal had explained that the commission generated N13 billion in the year under review.
Therefore, Sani directed the FRSC to provide details of the un-remitted funds, noting that “you had a target of N10 billion but generated N13 billion but only remitted N5 billion. So you just bring the balance. You need to furnish this committee with details of the un-remitted fund.”