The Senate Committee on Finance on Monday vowed to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act to curb frivolous spending of gross incomes and operational surpluses allegedly being made by many of the revenues generating agencies of government.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, said this during an interface with heads of National Metrological Development Agency and Federal Government Staff Housing Loan Board.
This, Adeola explained, will help in boosting revenues of government and financing of yearly budgets with less deficit margin and external borrowings.
He said: “The committee is forward looking to the upcoming amendment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act before us to jerk up government revenue.
“The idea of 80 per cent operational surplus is obsolete.
“The government has proposed 25 per cent, but we are proposing 60 per cent of your gross income to be deducted at source.
“So for every month, every revenue you generate, before you spend out of it, we will take 60 per cent of it.
“You are left with 40 per cent.
“At the end of the year, after your account must have been audited, we will still come after your 80 per cent operational surplus.
“This is what the committee is proposing.
“All the ideas of deducting depreciation, donations from organisations not approved, unwarranted expenditure, taken at a glance without revert back to government, fixing of arbitrary salary and commission that is not approved by National Salaries and Wages Commission, all of these will be put to an end by the forthcoming amendment to the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
Senator Adeola had on Friday along with the Committee members met with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris; and director General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, in getting their full buy-in and brief them on the revelations unearthed during the over four weeks-long investigation, with many agencies committing all manner of illegalities relating to the expenditure of government funds that should rightly be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.