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updated 10:20 AM UTC, Dec 13, 2023

₦526 Billion Not Yet Remitted To Federation Account – Report

Voice of Nigeria: The Ad-hoc Committee of the National Economic Council, set up to audit remittances of revenue generating agencies to the Federation Account, has discovered that the sum of  ₦526 billion and $21 billion was underpaid to the Federation Account.

Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gome State, North East Nigeria, stated this while briefing State House correspondents after Thursday’s meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Dankwambo said the committee recommended that revenue generating agencies involved should refund the amount to the Federation Account.

According to him, audit firm, KPMG, presented its report to the NEC meeting, which was adopted.

Sub-committee

Dankwambo said that a decision was taken at the meeting to set up a sub-committee, which would be an arm of the Legal Committee of the NEC that would look into details of this kind of infringement and make sure that those issues that are criminal in nature and require prosecution would be handled by the office of the AGF.

He said there was “a resolution to identify instances where there appears to be infringment” and directed that such be forwarded to the legal committee of the NEC for further action.

Governance structure

Dankwambo said “Council resolved to pursue the strengthening of the NNPC governance structure to prevent further occurrence of such gross misremittance by the NNPC and other revenue generating agencies.”

He said the audit was carried out on the agencies remittances from 2010 to June 2015 on agencies that pay into the federation account.

“But one of the resolutions of the NEC today was to extend the audit to June 2017.  So the audit would continue to the remaining agencies,” he said.

He said that the revenue generating agencies audited were the Nigerian National Petroleum Corportation, NNPC, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Corportation, NPDC, and the Depatment of Petroleum Resources, DPR.

Others are the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State said Council also commended the courage of the President and Vice President as Chair of Council in ensuring the probe of Federal Government Agencies and completing the audit report as this promote transparency and the anti-corruption efforts of the Administration.

Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, North West Nigeria, said the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelama, briefed the  Council on the establishment of  the Nigerian Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council was approved by Federal Executive Council (FEC) in March 2017, as a vehicle for partnering with the Private Sector on the Industrial Agenda.

He said the briefing focused on the eight initiatives and recommendations from the Industrial Council that require State Governments intervention, which included, among other things, improving broadband penetration in the country; resolving multiple taxation; and facilitating access to land.

“Council while welcoming the prayers resolved that the Nigeria Communication Commission go and outline its plans and communicate same to the State Governors in the next meeting,” Yari said

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, said he briefed the council on the just concluded ERGP Focus Labs, which were conducted successfully and the outcomes presented to the public last Tuesday, May 15, 2018.

The NEC was also briefed on the amount in Nigeria’s Statutory Accounts.

The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at May 14, 2018 stands at ₦1,830,682,945.30

The current balance in the Stabilisation Account as at May 14, 2018 stands at ₦15,725,456,963.83, while the current balance in the Natural Resources Development Fund as at May 14, 2018 stands at  ₦116,104,644,763.39

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