The House of Representatives has disclosed that revenue-generating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are abdicating their statutory responsibilities, forcing the federal government to take loans from foreign countries and creditors to finance projects and annual budgets.
Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Wole Oke disclosed this at the hearing held by the committee with some of the defaulting MDAs following audit queries by the Office of the Auditor General of the federation.
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He said the default was the main cause of shortfalls being witnessed leading to budget deficits and borrowings.
He said the committee had resolved to publish names of federal government agencies that have not been remitting revenues due to the federal government.
Oke said publishing the names would enable President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians to know the agencies sabotaging the government’s efforts to raise enough money to make their lives better.
The committee also summoned the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigeria Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (NOGFZA) and the Standard organisation of Nigeria (SON) over the alleged loss of billions of Naira in revenue from companies operating in the oil-free zones.
He said Nigeria continue to suffer revenue losses as a result of alleged non-issuance of receipts for payments made to the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, fraudulent practices on the issuance of Certificates of Acceptance on Capital Allowances by the Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
“We have invited all the regulators. Federal Ministry of Industry, Oil and Gas Free zone Authority, Onne, Standard Organisation of Nigerian and they are supposed to appear today. But they are not here.
“All the companies listed by the regulators, some of them are here, but the regulators are not here.
“From the evidence presented by these companies, we discovered that a company’s capital allowances rose from N4billion to N33 billion within a year and they brought the certificate here for us to see.
“Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority collected money in dollars from licensees and refused to issue receipts to them.
“All the licensees that have appeared before this panel said they were not issued receipts. Oil and gas Freee Zone, come and tell Nigerians why you did not issue them receipts and where is our money?
“We called the ministry of Industry to come and confirm whether they issued the certificate or not”.
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