A National Assembly panel has tackled Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and government-owned enterprises over “poor” revenue remittances to the federal government in 2024.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, and his House of Representatives’ counterpart, Hon. James Faleke, voiced their concerns at an interactive session with some MDAs on Monday.
The MDAs include the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC).
Sani said the gap between revenues generated by the MDAs and what they remitted is “worrisome”.
“This trend undermines the government’s capacity to fund critical infrastructure and social services, calling to question issues of inefficiency, mismanagement and possible revenue leakages”, he said.
He said that the committee would ensure that MDAs remit their obligations to the government to fund projects.
He further said: “Let us approach these tasks with a shared commitment to building a stronger and more accountable fiscal framework for Nigeria.
”I call on all of us to, please, be very open on all those areas that we know, even if they are not presented to us”.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Customs, Excise, and Interior has expressed displeasure at the “refusal” of heads of government agencies to respond to its invitation.
The committee had invited the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo; Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi; and NIS Comptroller-General, Kemi Nandap to an investigative hearing on the trade modernisation project.
However, none of the government officials attended the hearing on Monday.
A member of the committee from Rivers State, Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante asked his colleagues to recommend the dismissal of the government officials if they continue to ignore the summon of the lawmakers.
“If they continue disrespecting the invitations without any obvious reason, we should contemplate recommending their replacement because they have shown gross negligence or they are tired of the assignment that Mr president has granted them”, he said.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Leke Abejide ruled that the hearing would be reconvened after the passage of the 2025 budget.
