Different agencies different issues
Top of the agencies “indicted” is the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). The House of Representatives said it allegedly failed to remit N1.343 trillion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the CRF for several years.
PPPRA was established by an Act of the National Assembly in 2003. Its functions include the payment of fuel subsidy among others and it generates revenue from granting licences to firms for the importation of petroleum products.
Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, all government agencies are expected to compulsorily remit their operating surpluses to the federation account, annually. The lower chamber of the National Assembly pointed out that non-remittance of revenues contravenes Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). The Director General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, at a 2018 town hall meeting in Abuja, said PPPRA was the worst culprit by withholding operating surplus of over N1.34trn.
The lawmakers, therefore, urged the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to investigate the allegation and report back in 10 weeks. Responding, the spokesman for PPPRA, Apollo Kimchi, told Daily Trust on telephone that since inception, PPPRA has not collected up to N70bn as revenue.
“We can remit only from what we collect and I am not sure if it is up to N60bn not to talk of N1.3trn. It is a ridiculous story and it came up last year. I did a statement to say it is not true. The DG Budget, where story emanated from, was approached and there was no substance in it.
“We have details of our revenues and remittances and a copy of our external audit on remittance is with the DG Budget and even the National Assembly clerk. That 30 kobo per litre collection is our primary IGR,” Kimchi explained.
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) was also alleged to have expended N2.3bn without authorisation by the board, the lawmakers claimed. It was noted that the transaction also exceeded the approving limit of the management and called for a probe into the infraction.
But officials of the agency said there was no N2.3bn allegation. It explained that ICPC was investigating the Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) of the management staff
At the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), an unsigned N5.1bn renovation contract implementation about seven years ago caused raised eyebrows.
The House Committee on Public Accounts recently demanded that the present management which was not in the picture of how the contract was executed should present the original copies of the contractual agreement for the renovation of NPA Corporate Headquarters in Lagos awarded in 2011.
The probe was
based which had been responded to appropriately.
In a statement, NSITF said it was committed to transparency and accountability of all its business. It said the training was budgeted for in its 2018 and 2019 procurement plans.
“The process was advertised in national dailies, the bids were competed for, opened publicly, evaluated and awarded. The training was done in 15 states of the federation that involved over 4,000 of our staffers,” the statement said.
on a query by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation on the contract which allegedly had no valid and signed contractual agreement.
But in her response before the committee, the NPA Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, said the contract was awarded by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
She added that there was a valid, signed contractual agreement. She was told to present the original copy of the agreement and not the photocopies.