The Federal Government has uncovered a staggering debt of about N5.2 trillion owed from over 5,000 debtors across 10 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Out of the amount, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), working in concert with other agencies of government, have been able to recover the sum of N53.5 billion in the last 12-18 month, through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning (MFBNPF), Mrs Zainab Ahmed, at the formal launch of the “Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform in Abuja on Monday.
Mrs Ahmed said a perfunctory review of perceived significant leakages in Government led the FMFBNP to issue a directive on 26th September 2019, to all government agencies in a bid to aggregate all Government debts across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with a view to having a single window on the credit profile of Government.
“Sequel to the issuance of the Finance Circular, the Ministry through the consolidation efforts of the project, has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2 trillion.
“These debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000+ debtors across ten (10) Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“Working in collaboration with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), we have been able to recover the sum of N53.5 billion within the last 12-18 months, through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) as a recovery touchpoint,” Mrs Ahmed said.
She, however, pointed out that to consolidate on the current effort of the project, a Debt Recovery Application has been built to be monitored by the new Debt Recovery Unit.
The Debt Recovery Unit, she noted will capitalise on the effort made by the project consultants to provide the government with up-to-date records of its credit status by harmonising debt records across all MDAs within the country, give debtors access to a platform to view and offset debt in a seamless and secured manner as well as strengthen the institutional framework for enforcement and management of the Federal Debt Recovery plan.
The Finance Minister reiterated that the formal launch of Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform is only the beginning of a very important journey of strengthening the institutional framework for debt enforcement, recovery and management of the fiscal environment.
The main capabilities of the Project Lighthouse Debt Recovery Application are: “Admin:- to create users and their usage profiles; Public:- to allow owners/representatives of registered companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), sign up on the system and ascertain the status of their liabilities to the government”.
It also has the capability of “Payment Management:- to be used by debtors to offset debt in a seamless and secured manner. Government Interface:-to be used by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning (FMFBNP) to track the credit profile of the government, ascertain details of the outstanding amount due and the amount recovered from debtors.
“It also gives Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) access to update debt records progressively.
In addition to this, a fully functional website has been developed to effectively manage public perception around the Government debt recovery efforts and revenue improvement strategies,” Mrs Ahmed explained.
She noted that the usefulness of the platform for the country’s revenue generation effort will be dependent on the cooperation and commitment to providing quality and relevant debt-related information to populate the platform.
The Finance Minister urged all Federal Government Owned Enterprises (FGOEs) and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to update their list of debtors on a month-on-month basis against the Project Lighthouse debt recovery portfolio as they stand to benefit immensely from the intelligence that Project Lighthouse will be producing.
This, she added also encompasses the development of an institutional framework for enforcement, recovery and management of the fiscal environment.
Many top Government officials, MDAs and FGOEs attended the official launching of the Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform.
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If you want to keep your job and excel in your career, you need to do as I say,” Janet Abegunde’s boss said to her one fateful day. Miss Abegunde, a 24-year-old accountant who had just gotten her first job in one of the new generation banks, said she fell into depression after her boss sexually harassed her. FG uncovered N5.2trn debts, recovered N53.5bn ― Ahmed
FG uncovered N5.2trn debts, recovered N53.5bn ― Ahmed
and then