450 Billion Naira Uncovered by FG

 

A federal government audit has disclosed that the sum of  450 billion naira has not been remitted to the federal account by several agencies, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

 This was made known on Thursday during a press conference by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi   Adeosun, in Abuja.
According to her, the affected agencies have been asked to come up with a plan to repay the amount, insisting that the federal government is resolved to get the money back into its coffers.

 Kemi said:“So, to solve that problem, we decided to do an audit of 33 of those government agencies. So far we have identified 450 billion as outstanding and recoverable as operating surpluses from various government agencies,” 

She went further to give the names of  the agencies from which the monies are due, adding that each agency is expected to present a proposal of its repayment plan to the government.
She added  that government understands that these monies might have been spent but “the money has to be paid”.
 The lost of the agencies listed by Mrs Kemi are:

Nigeria Television Authority (NTA)
Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA)
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC)
National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)
Nigerian Shippers Council
Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC)
Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST)
Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) National Pensions Commission (PenCom)
Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET)
Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC)
National Information Technology and Development Agency (NITDA)
Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN)
Council for the Regulation of Engineering (COREN)

The Minister said that a meeting has been fixed for December 6 so as to enable the agencies submit a repayment plan or face appropriate sanctions, which includes deduction of amount owed directly from TSA balances.
According to her, she added that there are also the  possibility of prosecution by the EFCC.
The Minister said that a recovery committee chaired by the Accountant General of Federation, Ahmed Idris, has since been constituted to recover the outstanding 450 billion Naira.
Part of the committee’s job is to hold discussions with the affected agencies and she said that the plan has started yielding results. 
She went further and added:“We have been getting positive responses. Some agencies have started making remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“For instance, about N640 million was received from Nigeria Shippers Council on Wednesday. Our duty is strictly auditing and investigating. We are not a prosecuting agencies.
“That is why we will be reporting some of these defaulting agencies to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for prosecution,” Mrs Adeosun concluded.