House C’tee Queries Non-Remittance of N38m

IGR, Tax, by Kano Hospital

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has queried the management of the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Dala, Kano State for non-remittance of N38.8 million Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the federation account, and the non-payment of tax amounting to N21 million.

The committee headed by Hon. Kingsley Chinda, said the discoveries emanated from the report of the Auditor General of the Federation from 2011 to 2013, and berated the officials for not remitting tax to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Chinda mandated the hospital management to provide the committee with details of all bank accounts it operates.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Salihu Muhammad however explained that the hospital was unable to get a Tax Identification Number (TIN) from FIRS for the year 2012. The TIN was eventually procured, and payments made, he said.

He also explained that the N38.3 million was retained by the hospital to purchase drugs as the government does not provide funds for drugs procurement.

“Before TSA, we had four accounts: one dedicated to revolving funds for drugs, another for personnel, another for capital projects and the last one for our IGR,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad was directed to bring along all relevant documents and receipts of transactions at the next meeting day of October 25, 2016.

In a separate development, the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education has accused the management of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), of pre-budgetary spending before the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which it noted violates the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

This is as the committee, headed by Hon. Zakari Mohammed (Kwara APC) directed UBEC officials to submit detailed analysis of their expenditure particularly for capital projects.

At a meeting to appraise UBEC’s 2016 budget performance, the committee discovered that the commission started accessing funds for recurrent and other expenditures from March 2016, even though the budget became operational in May.

The Director of Finance, Mr. Mohammed Sambo told the committee that the commission has received about 92 percent of its

“We get our funding based on what was appropriated. If the appropriation is N77billion, we get N6billion every month and in 1st quarter, we would have gotten N18billion,” he said.

Explaining why many states are yet to access their funds from UBEC, Sambo said they are expected to first send in their matching grants, which many of them refuse to do.