The chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola has said the 9th Senate was determined to block leakages in public finance from agencies which were statutory sources of government revenue.
He declared that taking such a proactive measure would serve the long term desire of consolidating funds for needed social and infrastructure development as well as reducing the deficit in the yearly budget.
Senator Adeola made the disclosure at the weekend during the inaugural meeting of his committee.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan had last week unveiled members of each of the 69 standing committees of the Senate.
The Senator representing Lagos West expressed concern that agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and many other government agencies generate huge sums of money but in most cases, the funds were not applied according to the Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
He further declared that with proper vigilance and oversight work on all revenues accruing to the government from all sources beyond crude oil, the Federal Government would have been saved the needless lamentation of “no fund, no fund” on needed capital projects in the budget.
He said: “As the nation approaches its 59th Independence anniversary, we as a Committee of the Senate are challenged to do the right thing to ensure that the government gets all its revenue for needed capital projects. We want to move away from the frequent complaints of “no fund, no fund”.
“The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS and many other government agencies generate huge sums of money but in most cases, the funds are not applied according to the Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
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Senator Adeola told his committee members that “the task ahead requires invitation of all revenue-generating agencies to know the trends in their revenue-generating efforts for the government over the years as a way of charting new heights and correcting anomalies of leakages where present” adding that “there is a need to look into such revenue heads as the pre-shipment inspection and how it is applied among other revenue sources of government beyond crude oil and taxes.”
He expressed the confidence that the finances of Nigeria would improve significantly through blocking leakages and seeking new revenues sources adding that his committee would explore the possibility of an annual international Finance Lecture to be addressed by successful Ministers of Finance both at home and abroad and other financial experts on current trends as a way of addressing the challenges of finance in Nigeria.
He told his colleagues in the Finance Committee that the first task before the committee in the 9th National Assembly was to quickly work on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper(2020-2023) referred to it by the senate with a deadline preparatory to the presentation of the 2020 Appropriation Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly.
Members of the 17-man committee in their contributions commended the choice of Senator Adeola as the chairman of the important committee of “baking the national cake’’ based on his cognate experience in similar positions in Lagos State House of Assembly for eight years and later as Chairman of the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee with overview of all federal government agencies.
Among members present at the inaugural meeting were Senator Folarin (APC, Oyo South), Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South), Senator Uche Ekwunife (PDP, Anambra Central), Senator Nicholas Tofowomo (PDP, Ondo South), Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo Central) and Senator Abdullahi Sankara (APC, Jigawa North West) among others.
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