House C’ttee Grills Accountant General over Failure to Provide Evidence of 25% of N6bn Generated by SEC

•Slams FCCPC over shortfall in revenue remittance

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance, yesterday, questioned the office of Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF) for failing to provide evidence of 25 per cent of N6 billion internally generated revenue by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2020.

During an interactive session with SEC Director General, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, on the review of the 2020 to 2022 budget defence and 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Policy paper (FPP), Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon. Abiodun James Faleke, requested the oAGF to provide evidence of the N738 million, representing 25 per cent of the SEC revenue in 2020.

The oAGF said, “We have their record but not here but the receipts are issued by us so we can confirm it. Because they are not part of the schedule we are supposed to have today.”

Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi, said, “oAGF, you’re supposed to know this was actually in the news and you’ve been part of us since we started this session. If you look at our newspaper advert you will see that SEC actually was supposed to appear today, so you are supposed to know.”

Faleke asked the accountant general, “Honestly, are you happy with your job, are you satisfied that you are doing the right thing and you are presenting the necessary information to Nigerians through this committee?”

He added, “It’s rather unfortunate, honestly. At least I can see the laptop in front of my brother, it’s no longer manual.”

While responding to inquiry on the evidence of the 25 per cent remittance of the N6 billion revenue generated in 2020, the SEC director general observed that the money was deducted from the source automatically, adding that the system was effective.

Speaking on the actual revenue remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as provided by law, Yuguda who explained that the commission was self-funded, acknowledged that the commission was expected to remit 25 per cent of its revenue at source, and another 15 per cent at the end of the financial year.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance yesterday slammed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for remitting only N2, 636, 512, 707 billion out of the N7, 685, 947, 932 billion it generated between January 2021and July 2022. Executive Commissioner, Operations, at the commission, Adamu Abdullahi, said while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance for the consideration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) from 2023 to 2025 that N4.024 billion was generated in 2021, while 3, 661, 947, 932. 51 was generated from January to July this year.

He added that N1, 341, 196, 789 was remitted in 2021 and N1.295, 315, 918 had been remitted so far this year.

Faleke queried the commission over the balance of the money it generated, which the DFA said was for running overhead cost.

Abdulahi, while responding, explained that they spent the money because they were given approval by committees of the House that oversee the affairs of the commission.

But Faleke said, “No agency has the right to spend any money without appropriation, no committee of the House has the authority to approve any spending outside appropriation.”

The committee chairman further directed the clerk to write a letter that would be personally signed by him to the Minister of Finance that the Director of Finance and Administration of the commission, Mr. Akinyoghon Ojo, who accompanied the Executive Commissioner of Operations be removed from office.

He directed that another letter be written to the ministry that no more funds would be released to the agency until Mr Ojo was removed.

Faleke expressed dissatisfaction that the agency spent its internally generated revenue when it already had a budget for overhead.

“The agency which is fully funded by the government is supposed to pay 100 per cent of its IGR into the Consolidated Revenue Fund. If everybody spends their income how would the government fund the budget?”

Deputy chairman of the committee, Saidu Musa Abdullahi, said, “Because we don’t have people checking on us we go haywire on spending. What we get is you create unnecessary expenditures around income you generate.

Abdullahi said, “It is even more unfortunate that you are a full agency and supposed to do 100 per cent remittance. We are not prudent in the way we manage resources in this country. And something has to be done about some of these agencies.”