101.284 Agencies illegally took N5.8trn from FG account – Report

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), have made illegal deductions from the Federation Account estimated at N5.786 trillion between 2014 and 2017, said an audit report of the Auditor General of the Federation.

This was disclosed in Abuja during the presentation of the 2014-2017 Federal Audit Report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). The report was supported by the European Union and the British Council.

The report presented by the Programme Officer of CSJ, Fidelis Onyejegbu, shows NNPC led the unauthorised deductions with N4.5 trillion; FIRS followed with N951 billion and DPR had N334bn.

It also said some key Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) failed to remit N141.3bn of internally generated revenues and unspent funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) between 2014 and 2017.

Lead Director of CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, said the objective of the presentation was to improve federal revenue audit practice by putting the issues in the front burner of public discourse.

He emphasised the need for the country to amend its financial regulations and audit laws for better fiscal management in the best interest of the nation.

However, the NNPC and the DPR have denied the claim of illegally deducting N4.5trn and N334bn respectively. The agencies said they couldn’t have deducted from the account since they run cashless accounts.

The DPR spokesman, Paul Osu, said the audit report was old and the agency had since debunked the claims made in it. “It was not possible to illegally deduct from Federation Account when the cashless policy is in place.”

NNPC spokesman, Kennie Obateru, also said NNPC didn’t deduct from the Federation Account.

The Director, Communications at FIRS, Mal. Abdullahi Ismaila said he was not aware of such deductions but promised to verify the true position of the agency and revert.