The National Assembly says government Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must present evidence of 25 per cent Internally Generated Revenue remittance as a precondition for accessing the 2023 budget.
Senator Bima Enagi, the Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, said this on Tuesday in Lagos.
Enagi spoke at an oversight meeting with training and research institutions in the agriculture sector.
Enagi said the decision of the committee became necessary, given revelation that most agencies in the sector were not making the 25 per cent remittance to government as stipulated by law.
The senator said: “Basically in the area of revenue generation, most of the agencies are not remitting what they should remit.
“And we have addressed that.
“Aand we believe that by they come for the budget defence, they will ensure that the required balances are remitted.
“They will come with documentary evidence for the committee members to look at it and be convinced that the law has been compiled with.
“We expect each of them who falls into the category to comply, if any of them fails to comply, I can assure you we will not handle their 2023 budget proposal.”
Enagi said that the two days oversight has gone well, adding that the committee attended to 18 agriculture sector establishments located in the south.
“The focus of the oversight is to discuss with them and ask questions on implementation of 2020 ,2021 budgets actually the response has been very good,” he said.
Collaborating, Senator Bello Mandiya (APC-Katsina) said the committee would not take issues of non-remittance of 25 per cent lightly with defaulters, adding that evidences of remittances must be provided during budget defence.
Madiya questioned the rationale behind the non-remittance by most agencies, saying that the committee might be compared to report defaulters to the Ministry of Finance and Account-General of the Federation.
Members of the committee also commended the management of the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology, Lagos for the giant strides made in infrastructure and academic programmes since 2019.
After an inspection of the college, the senators pledged the commitment of the Senate to continue to support the college via legislative interventions for further attainment of Its mandate.
Earlier, the Provost of the College, Dr. Chuks Onuoha, said from 2019, the management inherited five programmes, adding that the college via interventions of the committee has been able to expand the academic programmes from five to 12 as well as ensure infrastructure development.
Onuoha said: “With the support, we been able to archive accreditation for the study of Marine Engineering and Maritime Services, which has never happened in the history of the college since 1969.
“Our students, who have been going abroad to further their programmes, can now do their programmes in the college.
“The college is unique, first of its kind, because it is the only college that runs Marine Technology and Maritime programmes.
“We have been able to improve on infrastructure and the height of it is the introduction of HND Marine Science and HND Marine Engineering, Oceanography, Computer science among other programmes.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that agencies that made presentations on the second day of the oversight included the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure; Federal Cooperation College, Orji-River, Enugu State; Federal College of Land Resources; Federal College of Animal Development; and Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu, Ebonyi State.
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