Scraping Fiscal Responsibility Commission is a misplaced priority – Reps

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja on Wednesday urged the Federal Government not to scrap or merge the Fiscal Responsibility Commission with a similar agency.

The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC-Kano), made the call when the committee visited the commission on oversight function.

Jubrin said that the House would ensure that the commission was neither scrapped nor merged with a similar agency.

Steve Oronsanye’s commission on rationalisation of agencies recommended that the commission be merged with a similar one.

According to Jubrin: “We will do everything to make sure that the fiscal responsibility commission is not scrapped or merged.

“Scrapping or merging the commission will be a misplaced priority.”

Jubrin further said that only the FRC was constitutionally empowered to collect money from government agencies.

Jubrin, however, condemned reports that the Federal Ministry of Finance arbitrarily mandated some government agencies to pay certain amount of money instead of their statutory requirements.

He said: “The Accountant-General of the Federation and Ministry of Finance do not have the power to tell any agency what to pay into government coffers.

“The law is clear on it.

“The fiscal responsibility commission is the agency that determines what agencies pay.”

Earlier, the Acting Chairman of the commission, Victor Muruako, said it was confronted with financial constraints because of non-release of its budgetary allocation from the finance ministry.

According to Muruako: “The commission’s operations are particularly affected by the consistent and continuous reductions in its overhead and capital appropriations over the years.

“I therefore appeal to the committee to carefully review the pathetic picture of the level of deprivation in funding that the commission has been subjected to from its inception.”

He urged the lawmakers to assist in reversing the trend, noting that it was crucial if the commission was expected to continue to deliver on its mandates.

Commenting on the Oronsaye report, Murako said that its report had made agencies in the country to look down on the FRC.

He said the uncertainty over the existence of an act and the FRC had dealt a big blow on the operations of the commission.

“Most government agencies are reluctant to respond to our insistence on remittance of Operating Surpluses and submission of audited accounts,” Muruako added.