The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday stepped up its investigation into revenue remittances by federal agencies, directing the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to submit a detailed account of outstanding operating surplus and other revenues allegedly owed to the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other government-owned enterprises.
The committee also demanded explanations over allegations that the OAGF deducted funds from the statutory accounts of several Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including the reported withdrawal of N15bn from the Universal Basic Education Commission, raising concerns that the practice may have hampered the agencies’ ability to carry out their statutory mandates.
The directives were issued during an investigative hearing at the National Assembly, where the AGF, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, appeared alongside senior officials of the Treasury.
The hearing forms part of the committee’s broader oversight of public finances and compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which requires government-owned enterprises to remit a prescribed percentage of their operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The operating surplus regime is intended to strengthen government revenues and curb leakages, but compliance has remained a recurring concern, with several agencies accused over the years of either under-remitting or failing to remit altogether.
Opening the discussion, a member of the committee, Gboyega Isiaka, expressed concern over Nigeria’s weak revenue performance, arguing that poor remittance compliance continued to undermine the country’s fiscal position.
Addressing the nation’s top accountant, the lawmaker said, “Considering our GDP, ours is one of the lowest on the continent, at about 16 per cent. Business entities are expected to return about 80 per cent of their operating surplus, while others remit between 20 and 50 per cent.
“From everything we are seeing, there still appears to be a backlog of remittances. Can you provide some figures? Beyond that, as a member of the economic management team, how satisfied are you with the performance of agencies such as the CBN, SEC, NIMASA and others, considering the scale of assets they manage?
“It is not enough to say they remitted 80 per cent of their surpluses. What exactly is the surplus they are declaring? We need to examine that against the assets under their control, as well as the revenues they ought to have paid but have not.”
Responding, the Director of Revenue and Investment at the OAGF, Makinde Mogaji, disclosed that the CBN allegedly owed the Federal Government N5.3tn in unremitted operating surplus.
He said previous efforts by the Public Accounts Committee to recover the funds had not yielded results.
“Early last year, the CBN was owing the Federal Government N5.3tn as operating surplus. Despite the efforts of the Public Accounts Committee to recover the money, it has not been paid.
“Seventy per cent of that amount ought to have been remitted, but the CBN refused to pay. That is just one of our major sources of revenue. In contrast, an agency like FAAN has remitted N473bn,” he said.
The hearing also examined the OAGF’s policy of automatic deductions from the accounts of MDAs, a mechanism introduced to recover anticipated operating surplus before the end of the fiscal year.
Defending the policy, Ogunjimi said it had significantly improved government revenue collections.
“That was an ingenious way of taking, in advance, what was due to government, and it helped us generate substantial revenue last year,” he said.
He, however, acknowledged that the policy attracted resistance from some agencies, leading to reviews and reversals in certain cases.