FG: Individuals, Corporate Bodies Owe 11 MDAs N6tn
•Says revenue loopholes in govt being aided by poor information sharing, enforcement
•Reveals companies, individuals owing govt still benefit from GIFMIS, other intervention programmes
Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has disclosed that it uncovered “monumental debts” of approximately N6 trillion being owed 11 federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through the consolidation efforts of the Debt Analytics & Reporting Application.
The Director of Special Projects, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr. Victor Omata, made the disclosure in Asaba, Delta State, during a one-day sensitisation programme for the South-South geo-political programme on federal government’s debt recovery drive through the Project Light-House Programme.
The debts were in the form of debt liabilities to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); refunds to the government by companies that failed to deliver on projects for which payment had been effected, unpaid credit facilities granted to both corporate entities and individuals by the Bank of Industry (BOI) and Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
Others were judgment debt in favour of government, and debts owed Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) by insurance companies, among others.
But despite the huge outstanding debts, data from the government’s Project Lighthouse Programme revealed that many of the individuals and corporate bodies owing the MDAs and refused to honour their obligations were still being paid especially through platforms such as Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and Treasury Single Account (TSA) due to lack of visibility over such transactions.
Omata, who was represented at the event by a Deputy Director in the Special Projects Department in the Ministry, Mrs. Bridget Molokwu, disclosed that the core focus of Project Lighthouse (Phase 2) was the recovery of debt owed to the federal government by individuals and companies through the instrumentality of the debt recovery capability of Project Lighthouse.
According to Omata, the ministry, through the consolidation efforts of the Debt Analytics & Reporting Application was able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N6 trillion from 11 MDAs.
“These debts, according to him, came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000 + debtors across ten (10) MDAs. The debt aggregation effort is still ongoing, he added,” a statement issued by the Director, (Press/PR) in the Ministry, Mr. Stephen Kilebi stated.
The statement further quoted Omata as soliciting participants’ support and commitment to changing the revenue narrative by innovatively exploiting the great power of Big Data Analytics, Data Science and related technologies.
He also sought the participants’ cooperation in providing quality and relevant information (debt-related data) to populate the platform, reiterating that debt recovery will reduce the country’s indebtedness, tract day-to- day revenue generation, get true profile of debt recovery porfolio, block revenue leakages and loopholes, adding that Project Lighthouse Programme has come with this recovery process.
He noted that the organisations stood to benefit immensely from the intelligence generated from the Project Lighthouse Programme.
Omata, disclosed that Project Lighthouse Programme was designed to help solve the intractable and perennial problem of debt recovery by using big data analytics technology.
The system collects, integrates and analyses data from revenue generating agencies in order to create insightful information for improved decision making on debt recovery.
Omata further explained that the Project Lighthouse Programme was one of the portfolio projects under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) of the federal government, adding that the initiative had enabled the aggregation of relevant economic and financial information from multiple agencies who did not share data before.
He added that generally, revenue loopholes had been aided by poor information sharing and enforcement.
The importance of the project was to leverage on big data technology to help in blocking revenue loopholes, identifying new revenue opportunities, optimising existing revenue streams especially the non-oil revenue as well as improving fiscal transparency, he buttressed.
Data from Project Lighthouse Programme, he said, revealed that many companies and individuals who owed government agencies and refused to honour their obligations were still being paid especially through the government platforms such as GIFMIS and Treasury Single Account (TSA) due to lack of visibility over such transactions.
He hinted that the ministry had taken steps to address the major revenue loopholes some of which included the issuance of a ministerial directive on September 26, 2019, to all MDAs, with a view to aggregating all government debts across the public finance space, to have a single window on the credit profile of the Federal Government and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) regulatory approval on March 31, 2021.
Others were the extension of the functionalities of the debt recovery capability of the Lighthouse Project Programme.
He added that the above measures would enable the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to fully automate the debt recovery process and make settlements of debts as seamless as possible.
