RMAFC yet to submit new revenue formula, remuneration review to President

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission said on Thursday it has not yet submitted the recently concluded review of revenue allocation formula and remuneration packages for political office holders to President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was contained in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria by RMAFC’s Head, Public Relations, Ibrahim Mohammed, on Thursday in Abuja.
Mohammed said rather, the draft reports of both documents were being readied for submission to the President for onward transmission to the National Assembly.
He said the Commission was in the process of sending the draft report to the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, when certain intervening variables crept in to truncate the process.
Mohammed said these variables included the proceedings of the Justice Mohammed Kutigi-led National Conference as well as the Senator Ekweremadu-led Constitutional amendments committee.
Mohammed said the commission had also deliberated, extensively, on the issue of revenue allocation formula review and the 2015 general elections, which saw the emergence of the Buhari Administration.
The statement recalled that the immediate past Chairman of the Commission, Elias Mbam, had at the end of the Revenue Allocation Formula Review in January 2014 held a press conference in Abuja.
At the said conference, Mbam assured Nigerians that the lapses inherent in the old revenue allocation formula would be addressed.
This is because the “draft report would provide a just and promising template that would ensure that fairness becomes the grand norm and rule of engagement in the nation’s revenue sharing game.
“Sounding prophetic at the time, Mbam cautioned that Nigeria must quickly reduce the level of its over-dependence on oil and gas revenue by diversifying the economy.
“This is in order to ensure sustainable means of funding its development programmes as the hydrocarbon resources which the nation relies on are exhaustible, non-renewable and vulnerable to international price volatility and politics.
“To this end, he added that the Commission’s prescription in the proposed document would not only serve the needs of the people but also encourage the three tiers of government to optimise the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) potentials within their domains.”
Mbam said this would “promote fairness, justice and transparency in the administration of revenue distributions from the Federation Account for sustainable national development”.
NAN reports that the review process began in 2015.
NAN.