MTEF/FSP: Senate moves to stop MDAs from spending revenues

Senate on Monday said no federal government agency would henceforth be allowed to spend the revenues they generate.

Chairman Joint Senate Committee on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy Paper, Senator Sani Musa, who disclosed this also directed all revenue generating agencies in the country to furnish his panel with details of  remittances they had so far made this year.

Senator Musa, who is the chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, directed the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to collate details of the remittances and the  list of those that were defaulting.

He gave the directive at the ongoing public hearing by a joint committee of the Senate chaired by him.

The panels including the Committees on Appropriations; National Planning and Economic Affairs; and Local and Foreign Debts are engaging  heads of federal ministries, departments and agencies on the  2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF-FSP.

He said, “The National Assembly is working hard to protect the economy of the country.

“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL for instance, is a Nigerian entity it must abide by the Nigerian rules, it must abide by the grund norms. When it is due to remit, it must do so.

“No agency of the government should come before us to say they are exempted from remitting revenues to the consolidated revenue funds.

“The Accountant General should take note of the agencies that had yet to remit their revenues to the CRF.

“You should liaise with the Committee’s secretariat so that we could find time to reconvene like this to sort out those issues.”

Musa was responding to a presentation by the Nigerian Institute of Legal and Advanced Studies and the Nigerian Maritime Academy on delayed remittances to  the CRA

He insisted that the  MDAs should present a breakdown of their revenue  collection and remittanceses  from January to date to the committee.

He said MDAs were aware that any action in breach of  financial regulations  was a breach of the law.

He said agencies must work toward remitting the revenue  due to government upon  collection without delay.

He also requested  that all receipts of remittances be made available to the committee.

Musa raised issues of disparity of  revenue  projections and remittances based on  presentations of  Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and presentation by Office of Accountant General for the Federation.

He  also urged the Accountant General of the Federation to interface with  MDAs for reconciliation of  remittances  made and revenue projections in the 2026-2027 MTEF and FSP.

He also requested for detailed breakdown of  remittances  arising from revenue collected from stamp duties by  the MDAs.

Musa said there was the need for proper reconciliation of the remittances in line with the  nation’s financial laws and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin  Madein, said her office do engage the MDAs to reconcile their accounts and remittances made to government in line with the financial laws.

Also the Director -General of the Debt Management Office, DMO, Mrs Patience Oniha,while responding to a question on new  government loan  request said  Nigeria needs to  challenge  itself on  revenue  generation given its  projection on debt services.

Among the  MDAs that presented their  revenue  projections for the  2024-2026 MTEF and FSP were  Office of Accountant General of the Federation, OAGF; Nigeria Maritime Academy, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Others are the The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA; Development Bank of Nigeria, DBN; Debt Management Office, Office

among others.

The Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC Joint Matriculation and Examination Board, JAMB and the Federal Mortgage Bank were asked to appear at another day for re- presentation of their expenditure and revenue  projections.

Earlier, the Accountant General said, “I am here to make a presentation on the 2023 budget presentation.

“The office of the Accountant-General of the Federation is saddled with the treasury management of receipts and expenditures.

“In the area of revenue, we are earning the monitor, accounting and remittances through collaboration and synergy of various agencies of the government that are critical in revenue generation.

“The office is equally looking at the MTEF that has been put together by the office of the budget and economic planning.

“I will highlight figures from 2020 to 2023. From the federation account, in 2020 the budgeted revenue was put N7.9trillion, and the actual gross revenue was N8trillion while net distribution was N7.6trillion.

“In 2021 budget was N9.2trilllion while the actual gross inflow was N9.3trillion and the net inflow was N7.7trillion.

“In 2022, the budget was N15 trillion, the actual revenue was N12.2trillion, the net distribution was N8.6trillion.

“In 2023, the revenue projection was N13,7trillion, as at October, the total revenue inflow was N12.4tillion

“Under the stamp duty, the budget for 2020 was N17.3billion while the actual was N119billion,

“In 2021, the budgeted amount was N16.8billion, while the generated amount N33.94billion.

“In the year 2022, the budget stamp duties was N16.8bilion while the generated amount was N53.5billion.

“In 2023, the budgeted amount was N44.46billion and the generated amount was N53billion.

“For the IGR in 2020 was N871.3billion, while the actual amount  N532,9billion

“In 2021, the budgeted amount was N1.06trillion while the generated amount was N1.06trillion. In 2022 the budgeted amount was N2.2trillion while the amount collected was N1.39tillion.

“In 2023, the budget was N2.6tn, while actual amount was N1.42tn as st September 2023.

“We can only project IGR for 2024 and we put that on 20% mark up of the budget of 2023 which is N3.1tillion.”