BREAKING NEWS: Senate demands financial details of revenue-generating agencies
The Senate on Tuesday directed the
Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, to furnish it
with details of all revenue generating agencies in the current fiscal
year.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on
Finance, Mr. John Enoh (PDP-Cross River), gave the directive when he led
members of the committee on oversight visit to the Accountant-General’s
office in Abuja.
Okon said that it was necessary for the
committee to be availed with information on the performance of revenue
generation by agencies of government in 2016.
He said that a provision of N1.5tn was made for revenue generation by the agencies in the budget.
He added that the committee was
interested in not only knowing but having submissions on performances of
the agencies because the 2017 Budget would be presented soon.
He said, “As a committee, we would like
to have the submission of the various revenues by the various revenue
generating agencies.
“The projection of independent revenue of government in 2016 budget is N1.5tn.
“This committee is interested in knowing
the actual performance of that class of revenue stream because going
into 2017, the performance has the greatest impact on whether the budget
is going to perform or not.
“When you project N1.5tn for a class of
revenue, and after about 10 months, you have not even made N500bn, then
you can be sure of how to tackle the incoming projection.
“We will also like to know what this
revenue stream has been able to do because we also know the projection
that has been given for 2017.
“It is going to be a little bit
difficult for the committee to be able to look at this without having to
have benefit of what performance that particular revenue stream has
been able to do.”
Responding, the Accountant General said
he would not only provide the details of what the committee required but
would establish a constant liaison with the National Assembly for
adequate sharing of information.
He said, “In terms of actual figures, it is part of what we are going to give you monthly.
“In fact, let me inform this committee
that we want to establish a constant liaison where I would delegate an
officer to address these demands on monthly basis.
“This, I promise you that we will do and
that will bring synergy, collaboration and partnership closer and
stronger and I believe a lot of issues will ordinarily be resolved even
without having to call us.
“We will be giving you the figures, and we will be transparent.”
Idris disclosed that the introduction of
the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System had so far saved for the
government N120bn from 453 Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He said, “There is now a new spirit to
ensure that all other major MDAs that largely account for Federal
Government huge salary profile are brought on board before end of this
year.
“It is expected that a saving of over N100bn addition would be achieved if we are able to bring the agencies on board.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment