Godwin Shaibu…Senate wants N865.44bn illegal revenue deductions stopped
…NPA To Refund $37.67m, N67.5bn, N1.07bn, $2.3m, €196,257
…Mandates EFCC, ICPC To Go Qfter Govt Officials Who Diverted Funds
The Senate has faulted the Nigerian National Petroleum CorporationNigerian National Petroleum Corporation for under remitting the sum of N3,878,955,039,855.73 trillion revenue from domestic crude oil sales to the Federation Account for the period of January to December, 2015.
Accordingly, the upper chamber called on the Corporation to desist from further deduction at source as this contravenes Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
It also mandated the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) or any other approving authority to, as a matter of urgency, approve agreed percentage which should be allocated to NNPC monthly as operational cost to ensure that their operations are not adversely affected.
These formed part of the 59 recommendations adopted by the Senate and contained in the report of the Committee on Public Accounts on the Annual report of the Auditor-General for the Federation on the Accounts of the Federation for the years ended 31st December, 2015.
The Senate in one of its adopted recommendations to the Executive arm of government noted that the outstanding collection from Solid Minerals (N12,137,140,361.58) not remitted to the Federation Account, but kept in an account maintained by the Central Bank of Nigeria contravenes the provisions of Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The chamber, therefore, charged the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to fix a percentage to be allocated to Mining and Cadastral Office as cost of collection as is currently applicable to NCS (7 percent), DPR (4 percent) and FIRS (4 percent) of non-oil revenue.
On Unretired Advances involving 39 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to the tune of N2,296,567,084.37 billion, the upper chamber demanded the sanctioning of Accounting Officers of MDAs in accordance with the provision of Rule 3124 of Financial Regulations.
It also call gave the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, a deadline of 90 days to identify and sanction officers responsible for mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N54,151,360,000 billion ($274,280,000.00) as exchange loss on External Loans.
The Accountant General is expected to report back to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts within ninety days.
In addition, the Senate gave another 90 days timeline for the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to set in motion the process of recovery of Internal Loans made from other Funds which stands at N390,288,085,668.92 billion and to be paid back into the Special Funds Accounts.
The source of the loans are from the Development of Natural Resources Account, Stabilization Fund Account, 25 percent Husked Brown Rice Levy, 1 percent Comprehensive Supervision Scheme (CISS) Pool Levy, 15 percent Wheat Grain Levy, and 10 percent Rice Levy.
In another vein, the upper chamber directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to recover the sum of N378,879,674.99 tax revenue from Webb Fontaine Ltd and remit same to the Federal Inland Revenue Service within six (6) months.
It also called for a review of all companies that were paid from the out-flow of one percent CISS Account which amounted to N39,557,671,843.97.
The upper chamber also directed the Nigerian Posts Authority to refund the sum of $37,627,939.75million (USD) to the federal government coffers due to lack of diligence in the review of NPA’s charges on a contract of Towage services.
It also mandated the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to subject the Accounting Officer to investigation in accordance with Rule 3112 (I and II) of the Financial Regulations.
The upper chamber also demanded that the Director-General who authorized the disbursement
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