NNPC Towers

The House of Representatives on Wednesday directed the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) to proceed with the forensic audit of three federal establishments.

These are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Financial Reporting Council.

Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumini Jibrin (APC, Kano), gave the order when his committee paid an  oversight visit to the FRC office in Abuja.

He also gave a one-week ultimatum, which may have political undertones, to the commission to collate the revenues of all federal agencies and forward same to it, stressing that the document he expects should give other fiscal details of the institutions.

According to Jibrin, “the NNPC is the biggest culprit in terms of non-remittance of revenue accruing to the federal government. So, you need to conduct a forensic audit there. Their remittance is ridiculous.”

He also prodded the FRC to go after AMCON “and do a thorough work.”

“You are sitting here lamenting, the FRC has taken over your job. Do a forensic on them. Caution them to stick to their powers and stop encroaching on your turf,” the legislator further directed the commission.

Equally, he noted that the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), the Director-General of the Budget Office and the Minister of Finance, who is also the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela lack powers to determine what government agencies should pay as remittance to the government.
“If you go and get any figure from the above and say that is what you should pay, you are on your own,” he warned the government agencies,” just as he requested the FRC to submit a weekly report of all remittances to the National Assembly.

Jibrin stated that not only is the budgetary allocation to the FRC “small, but it is unacceptable and non-negotiable.

The commission, he insisted is very crucial to the survival of the country and should never be made victim of the planned rationalisation exercise by the government.

“It shouldn’t be scrapped or merged with any agency,” he said.

He offered: “We will continue to advise the federal government  to allow the commission to continue to stand on its own because of the role it has been playing in the past few years.”

In his submission, the acting chairman of the FRC, Victor C. Oriaka, complained over the lack of complete release of its meagre budget provision.

He said out of the N53 million approved to it this fiscal year, only N24 million had been given to it.

He also listed other challenges militating against the commission’s smooth operations as refusal of government agencies to remit revenues, lacunae in its Act, which makes it difficult for it to go after defaulting agencies and other problems.

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