The House of Representatives has constituted a sub-committee to investigate Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), National Hospital, Pharmaceutical Council, and others over discrepancies in revenue projections, remittance, and expenditure.
The agencies appeared and made submissions at the ongoing 5-Day Interactive Session on the 2021 to 2013 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) which began on Thursday.
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The session was jointly organised by the House committees on Finance, Appropriation, National Planning, and Economic Development and Aids, Loans and Debt Management.
The committees at the interactive session are taking presentations on revenue and expenditure projections contained in the budget of MDAs submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Budget Office.
The minister of Finance; Comptroller General (CG), Nigeria Customs Service; Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), and other agencies were at the opening ceremony on Thursday.
Other agencies are also expected to attend the interactive session and make their submissions on their revenue targets and expected expenditure on subsequent days.
In its submission made by its Director of Budget Planning, Research and Statistics, Dr. Gado Shehu, CAC disclosed that it had an approved revenue budget of N15.770bn in 2019 while the budgetary performance was N12,675bn.
He said that the commission, however, remitted N100 million as revenue to the consolidated revenue fund.
However, Chairman, House Committee on Finance, James Abiodun Faleke, who chaired the session, said it was surprising for CAC to remit only N100m after getting over N12billion.
Speaking on the 2020 budget, Shehu said: “The approved revenue budget for 2020 is N18bn, while the CAC had by June realized N8.3bn.
“By June, because the Federal Government has started direct deduction from our revenue, they have deducted N69m.
“Twenty-five percent of whatever drops into our account is deducted,” he said.
However, Faleke interjected, saying that N69m is not 25 percent of N8.3bn but less than 1 percent of the amount.
Shedding more light, Faleke said: “The amount that will be deducted from your account directly, without recourse to you in 2021 is N7.77bn.
“In 2022, the amount that will be deducted from your account is N7.925bn.
“In 2023, by the grace of God, God spearing our lives, the amount that will be deducted from your account is N8bn.”
He ordered that CAC be placed on “a five-year status inquiry.”
On his part, the Chief Medical Director of National Hospital, Jack Momoh said the hospital was using most of its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to pay for cleaners, security, and other outsourced services being rendered to the hospital.
He lamented that the hospital had not been paid for the outsourced services for three years amounting to N307 million.
According to him, the hospital generates revenue from drugs and surgeries which are paid for by patients.
Speaking, James Momoh of the NERC said the organisation got N6.47bn in 2018, N8 bn in 2019 and N3.5 bn in 2020.
He said the surplus on the budget was remitted.
Faleke later constituted a sub-committee to probe the agencies who contravene the laid down rules in the Financial Regulations Act and other laws.
“In line with the Budget Office (of the Federation), we want to know where our money went, how they spent that money, who and who benefited from that money rather than remit it to the Federation Account.
“The report should be submitted to us in one week,” he said.
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