The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has called on the Nigerian red chamber to persuade revenue generating agencies to comply with the statutory requirements vis-a-vis the examination of their remittances to the Treasury Single Account (TSA), revenues and expenditures.
The agencies include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), amongst others.
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Nairametrics understands that FRC’s action is in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA, 2007) of the FRC which mandates the commission to compel any person or government institution to disclose information relating to public revenues and expenditures and cause an investigation into whether any person has violated any provisions of this Act.
This development might have emerged as some senators lamented that the 2019 budget was poorly implemented.
During a briefing on the state of affairs of the agencies, the acting Chairman of the Commission, Victor Muruako said the FRC was expected to monitor all expenditure and revenue generated by the revenue agencies in the country but that its requests to scrutinise the books of the agencies were always ignored.
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Muruako said, “We write numerous letters to all revenue-generating agencies to intimate us of their financial dealings as per revenue generated but they don’t respond to any of our requests.
“We are not impostors, we are authorised by the letters of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 to look into their books as regards how much generated and how much remittances made to the Treasury Single Account (TSA). But they don’t respond as at when due.
“At times, it takes as long as six months before they will even respond, and when they respond, they leave out the main details that we are looking for, which is how much revenue generated and how much remitted and retained as stated in the establishment acts.”
