Ad-Hoc Committee On Misuse Of Revenue By MDAs Not A Witch Hunt – Senate President

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has stated that the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under Remittance and Other Fraudulent Activities in Collection, Accounting, Remittance and Expenditure of Internal Revenue Generated By Revenue Generating Agencies was not set up to witch hunt any individual or organization but an exercise to see help the agencies to be more prudent in both collection and spending of revenue.

At the inauguration of the Committee, the Senate President who was represented by Senator John Enoh said the committee is to investigate whether statutory transfers to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as required by law are being done accurately and as at when due adding that “ the major problem in most of our government revenue generating agencies is the abuse of operating surpluses where people spend up to the last naira on irrelevant conferences and souvenirs”.

The Senate president said that when blames are being apportioned for unfavourable economic conditions on various media platforms it is often directed at the President, governors and legislators while the heads of most of this government revenue agencies are spared of any criticisms adding “we who are at the receiving end must rise to the occasion by looking at what the law stipulates and ensure that the right things are done”.

In his welcome address, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Lagos West) said that in addition to unraveling the humongous sums of funds that may have been mis-aplied, misappropriated or possibly stolen and the retrieval, the investigation will go a step further by examining the laws and their loopholes that permits the infractions of the laws and recommend amendments to the laws crating some of these agencies.

After the inauguration the Committee, the Committee scheduled the Comptroller General of Customs, the Registrar of Corporate Affairs Commission, the Accountant General as well as the Auditor General of the Federation among over 600 agencies to make presentation on revenue and expenditure profiles to kick start the investigation while the Managing Director of NNPC was asked to come and defend the allegation by the Accountant General of the Federation that it retained 60% of its revenue, a practice that is against the law.