FRC recovers N120b from revenue agencies

The Chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Victor Muruako, on Thursday said the commission recovered N120 billion from Federal Government’s revenue generating agencies within seven years.
Muruako made the disclosure in Abuja at a reconciliation meeting between the FRC and the Nigeria Communications Commission over the latter’s non-remittance of operating surplus from 2007 to 2012.
He said the money was recovered from 2007 to date, adding that the recovery was made possible through enforcement of prudence and accountability principles in the agencies.
According to him, the recovered amount included N20 billion remitted by the NCC in 2010 and another N2 billion it remitted on Wednesday.
Operating Surplus is 80 per cent of revenue generated by any government organisation, which should be remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Muruako said: “For the seven past years, we have been able to recover up to N118 billion from government agencies, and if you add it up with the payment that NCC just made, you will find that the money we have recovered is now N120 billion.
“Between 2007 and 2010, NCC failed to remit N22 billion as its operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund but after several meetings with them in three years, they made payment of N20 billion last year.”
Muruako said that most of the agencies were not responding to the commission’s appeal to them to remit their operating surpluses.
He said: “They do not want to accept that you don’t just get money and spend it directly, because out of that money, you are to remit 80 per cent of it first to the CRF account.
“But now, I can tell you that a lot of them are coming around on this.
“For now, NCC has done well.
“By this time last year, we were still in dispute with them based on the discrepancies found in the financial statements they submitted to us between 2007 and 2010.
“We observed a shortfall of over N22 billion in what they were supposed to have remitted within those years as operating surplus into the CRF.
“Our investigation unit was able to get the NCC to admit to the shortfall and I can tell you that as at today, it has paid N22 billion and still has an outstanding N99 million to pay for that period.”
In her speech, the NCC’s Director of Finance, Iyabo Sholanke, said that Wednesday’s remittance by the commission was a demonstration of its commitment to pay what it owed the government.
Sholanke said the commission’s earlier remittances to the CRF included N9.3 billion for 2013 and N10 billion for 2012.
She reiterated the commission’s commitment to contributing to government’s revenue generation through prompt remittance of its operating surplus.