The Federal Government will henceforth deal decisively with any head of Ministries, Departments and Agencies found to be defaulting in remitting revenues into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this at the post-Federal Executive Council meeting press briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
Adeosun, who addressed journalists alongside the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the need for ministers to take personal charge of ensuring that leakages are plugged formed the major discussion at the meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
She said investigations had revealed that some government agencies have not been remitting revenues into the accounts of government and that cannot be allowed to continue.
The minister said: “The principal discussion in our meeting today was the initiative by this administration to plug revenue leakages in our MDAs that generate revenue.
“The presentation to FEC was to remind ministers who supervise these revenue-generating boards of their responsibilities under the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“Let me remind you that under FRA, these boards and corporations who generate revenue are supposed to generate and operate surplus, 80 per cent of which is to be credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“But we have discovered that many agencies have never credited anything and never generated any operating surplus, including some whose salaries, overheads, capital are paid by the Federal Government.
“In addition to that, they generate revenue, which they spend without any form of control.”
Adeosun said the outcome of an audit commissioned by the government on the issue would determine the fate of the heads of the MDAs.
The minister added that the government is also investigating some government agencies, including NIMASA and some foreign missions that collect money in foreign currency and remit in Naira.
Adeosun also denied media reports that the President had withdrawn the 2016 Budget from the National Assembly.
She said: “You know the budget is presented to the National Assembly and then there is what we call an interactive budget approval process and you know the agencies will still go and defend their budget at the National Assembly.
“So, ordinarily in budget processes anywhere in the world, there can be amendments to the budgets arising from that interactive process, which is normal.
“But let me make it very clear that the budget is not being withdrawn or replaced.
“The budget has been presented and will go through normal process whereby MDAs defend their budgets.
“It is possible in the process of that, because as you know the legislature is not a rubber stamp, their job is to scrutinise the budget and to approve that budget.
“So there may be some changes that occur as a result of that interactive process, but that process is normal everywhere in the world where a budget is presented.”
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