FG realises over N2.15trn from operating surplus ― Muruako

Federal Government on Wednesday confirmed the remittance of over N2.15 trillion operating surpluses paid by various government corporations into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Victor Muruako disclosed this in Abuja, at the pre- 2021 edition of the Nigerian Open Government Partnership (NOGP) week briefing, however, noted that the Federation lost over N1.2 trillion due to the failure of some Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to remit 80 per cent operating Surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in breach of extant financial regulations.

On the verification of Federal Government capital projects, he disclosed that the Commission during the verification of over 1,000 capital projects across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, observed that “over 60 per cent of government agencies do not associate their annual budgets with a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. This is responsible for some agencies simultaneously undertaking more projects than they can handle per time.

“The penchant of approving new contracts by new Governments to the detriment of existing contracts as well as inadequate funding lead to a litter of abandoned projects. Development of Fiscal Responsibility Index: the Commission developed and introduced a fiscal responsibility index for monitoring and assessing the level of fiscal discipline & prudence across federal MDAs. This has proved helpful in ultimately predicting the attitudes of given MDAs to policies of the Federal Government. It will thus be useful to determine appropriate interventions.”

Muruako who acknowledged that much more is yet out there in the hands of MDAs that either has failed to dutifully audit their accounts or those that choose not to forward copies of their audited financial reports to the Commission as required by law, tasked the National Assembly on the urgent need to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, with a view to blocking the loopholes which some government agencies were taking advantage of, hence not remitting operating surpluses and submitting their audited financial statements.

As stipulated in the analysis of the annual audited financial reports submitted to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission by the MDAs, no fewer than 32 MDAs failed to submit their audited financial statements since they were incorporated into the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) in 2016.

They include: Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps, Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON); Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry, Federal Radio
Corporation of Nigeria and Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

Others are the National Business And Technical Examination Board, National Council of Arts & Culture, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, National Lottery Trust Fund, National Space Research & Development Agency, National Sports Commission, National Steel Development Fund.

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