The House of Representatives Committee on Finance Thursday knocked the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and the National Food and Drugs Administration Commission (NAFDAC) for ‘failing’ to remit billions of naira they generated in 2021.
This was during the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper hearing with MDAs.
- Amotekun Corps arrests 19 over burglary, fraud in Ekiti
- Anambra 5th highest HIV transmission in Nigeria
The deputy chairman of the committee, Sa’idu Abdullahi, said the documents submitted by PenCom Commissioner in charge of Finance, Charles Sylvester, showed that PenCom made N20.8bn as revenue but remitted only N1.1bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2021.
“How much did you remit? I’ve seen N1.1bn out of over N20bn. I’m not sure you can answer the question we’re going to ask,” Abdullahi said.
The committee also flayed the alleged extra-budgetary spending of earned revenue by NRC.
Director, Finance and Accounts, NRC, Adeola Olumakinde, had said: “We generated N14bn, N14.418, 352,704. So, we remitted. We transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), N1.396”.
But Abdullahi queried: “You made N14bn and you transferred N1.3bn? FRC, what’s supposed to be the guiding principle in remittances?
“You cannot just sit in the comfort of your offices and create expenditure on revenues. I’m quite sure, what you’ve expended your funds on, are not budgeted for. They’re not part of your budgetary provisions.”
NAFDAC Director, Finance and Accounts, Gbenga Oyewande, told the committee that out of the N16bn realised, the agency remitted N3bn.
Oyewande, who said NAFDAC got its income from IGR and User Fees, explained: “The User Fees is the one that’s specifically tied to the services. That’s the income that we receive from our clients for rendering services to them.
“In 2021, from IGR, the net figure of our IGR is N2.8bn. From the User Fees, the net figure is N13.2bn bringing the total figure to N16bn.”
The deputy chairman of the committee said NAFDAC had violated extant laws that stipulated remittances to government coffers by spending outside the 50 percent approved for the agency to utilise.
He said: “When you’re expected to remit N8bn, you’re remitting N3bn. You made N16bn. So, you make more money from the other stream of income? You made more money from the User Fee and you expend everything?”
The committee directed the heads of the agencies to appear before it on Monday.
