The House of Representatives on Tuesday in Abuja promised to work toward plugging all revenue leakages of Ministries, Departments and Agencies in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007. 

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal said this at a meeting of the House Committee on Finance and revenue generating agencies of government. 

Tambuwal, who was represented by the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, said that MDAs would be made to account for and fully remit revenues generated to the consolidated account.

He said that there was no discretionary approach to remittances to the Federation Account.

“The method of remitting the revenue and the government account or fund, where it may be remitted may be different.

“There is, however, no room for discretionary approach to revenue remittances,” he said. 

He noted that some MDAs had failed to remit adequately revenues generated to the consolidated account of the government.  

The speaker said the house was considering a law that would ensure that agencies of government complied with revenue remittances. 

“New legislation may be considered to ensure compliance so that the nation would earn what is due to it from the revenue earning departments and agencies of government.

“MDAs will be made to account for and remit to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation incomes received on behalf of the Federal Government,” he said. 

The speaker warned that the practice whereby agencies of government spent their funds at their discretion would no longer be tolerated. 

“A situation where more than 50 per cent of actual government revenue is spent outside the national annual budget has put Nigeria in a fiscal crisis.  

“It makes our budgeting system   inefficient, ineffectual, and opaque. It does not promote accountability, transparency,” he said. 

He noted that the constitution and laws on revenue generation had been breached in many ways by government agencies. 

He urged relevant committees of the house to propose amendments to laws that are unconstitutional. 

The Chairman of the committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin,  said the meeting was not to probe or investigate any agency but a fact finding exercise, “to make our budget more transparent.” 

He explained that the meeting will enable the committee to track previously uncaptured internally generated revenue of government.

He said that the meeting would also help to monitor agencies compliance with the provision of the Act. 

Jibrin noted that there was always a discrepancy in figures between the Budget Office and the agencies. 

He added that internal laws of the agencies seemed to empower the agencies to spend their revenues in violation of the FRA 2007.