Members of the National Assembly, on Thursday, expressed grave displeasure over the level of corruption and impunity being perpetuated by autonomous federal agencies, for failing to account for revenues accrued to the federation.
Speaking at the opening of the 2021 budget performance and 2022 budget defence of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) held at the instance of the joint Senate and House Committee on Inland Waterways, Senator Danjuma Goje tasked NIWA Managing Director/CEO, Dr George Moghalu, on the need to prioritise Baro port because of its economic viability.
He expressed optimism that the Baro water transportation when operational will help in reducing the pressure on land transportation and huge expenses being incurred on road construction across the country.
In his remarks, Senator Smart Adeyemi who opposed NIWA’s request for operational autonomy argued that: “Most of the agencies that have autonomy; that is where you find corruption. NIWA is located in my Senatorial District. There were a lot of complaints against the agency.
“Agencies are Federal Government organisations and in all, you will do, you must reflect the federal character and you must be transparent, even recruitment.
“I can’t understand where you present a total of an agency zero. I have never seen a budgeting system where you have zero.
“I think there is what is called Consolidated Account where agencies are supposed to remit proceeds. If we continue giving autonomy to agencies, you will discover they will spend everything and give you zero.
“I want Nigeria to move forward, let us do things the way it should be done. Let there be proper accountability, let there be checks and balances,” he urged.
While presenting the 2021 budget performance, the NIWA Managing Director/CEO, Dr Moghalu, explained that from the total appropriated fund of N7.051 billion for 2021, the agency has so far received N3.602 billion (51 per cent) of the capital budget out of N6.314 billion and utilised N1.105 billion.
In the same vein, the agency received N730.286 million (99 per cent) out of N737.139 million as recurrent expenditure; while from the N5.404 billion projected revenue, the agency remitted N1.621 billion into the consolidated revenue fund (CRF), out of total revenue of N2.291 billion for the year under review.
He added that Federal Government approved the sum of N3 billion for Port Levy which has not been accessed because it was not budgeted for, adding that additional fund is expected to be approved before the year ends.
For the year 2022, Dr Moghalu disclosed that the Agency is expected to receive subvention worth N12.895 billion from the Federal Government and total internally generated revenue worth 21.250 billion made up of recurrent expenditure estimates of N10.871 billion and capital estimates of N5.066 billion while remittances to the CRF was estimated at N5.313 billion.
Worried by the non-presentation of various remittances allegedly paid into the CRF account and evidence of various procurements carried out in the year, the Senators and members of the House of Representatives unanimously stepped down the consideration of the budget till next week.
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NASS kicks against request for autonomy for NIWA, others, over non-transparency, accountability of accrued public funds
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