The Account-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, yesterday said non-oil revenue has improved significantly in the past few months.
Madein broke the news at the inaugural meeting of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the purview of the committee.
She, however, did not provide statistics to reflect this improvement.
Madein said: “The non-oil revenue has tremendously improved in the last few months which have been helping in the kind of inflows that come to the federation account and we are also expecting them to do more and better likewise all other agencies”.
While responding to queries about why they were still carrying out their operations manually, the Accountant-General said her office would begin the automation of its processes by December.
She said: “Improving the revenue reconciliation is ongoing and it used to be manual, which makes it very tedious. We are working on having access to the systems. We are even having a series of systems of being deployed, revenue monitoring information system and also the reconciliation system. They are working on them. We will expedite action to ensure those systems become operational before the end of the year. So that the reconciliation would be much easier than it used to be”.
On revenue leakages due to waivers and tax incentives among others, she said her office has no power to do anything about it.
She added: “On revenue leakages, when waivers, tax extension, tax incentives, are being posted at the Budget Office, they hardly refer to the Office of the Accountant-General. We do not even get involved in the process”.
It is when they make payment and the agency presents its side by side to explain how they come about the revenue that we would see whatever waivers have been granted. So that leaves us with no other option but to accept the figures”.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon James Faleke, said the committee will be addressing the revenue and fiscal aspects of the various MDAs through effective oversight and legislation on the fiscal policies that will provide effective revenue generation and economic development.
“Over the past four years, the House Committee on Finance has been at the centre of this and we shall continue to do the same in our bid to shore up the revenue fortune of the nation”, he said.
