TheCable

The federal government is set to recover about N450 billion operating surpluses that were not returned by 33 agencies from 2010 to 2015.

Kemi Adeousun, minister of finance, made the announcement at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

She said an audit had been carried out on the agencies in compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007.

The minister said a committee headed by the accountant-general of the federation had been set up to recover the money from the agencies.

Adeosun revealed that some of the agencies had started returning various sums, disclosing that N640m had been received from the Nigeria Shippers Council.

She said the audit revealed that there were lots of non-remittances and under-remittances of operating surpluses and that some agencies were operating without an approved budget.

She added that there was overstating of budget and spending above budgeted amount, failure to reconcile accounts and existence of irreconcilable differences.

“The audit also showed that there was under-reporting of revenues, failure to submit audited financial statements, payroll fraud and exaggeration of payroll costs, over-payment of staff salaries and abuse of personnel grants,” she said.

Adeosun said while there was unapproved monetisation of medical and other allowances, there was also non-compliance with the PPA and failure to convert to IPSAS accounting.

IPSAS stands for International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

She said some of the agencies affected are the Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Ports Authority and Corporate Affairs Commission.

Others are the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Export-Import Bank, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and National Open University of Nigeria.

Also affected are the Nigerian Railway Corporation, West African Examination Council, Joint Administrations and Matriculation Board and the National Hospital, Abuja.

Adeosun said some of the audit reports had been sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“The financial regulations are very clear; where audit reports have indicted some of the officers, some of these audit reports are going to the EFCC,” she said.

“Some of the audit findings were so serious that the decision was taken that some of those particular reports must go to the EFCC. Remember that we are not a prosecuting agency; ours is to investigate and then we hand it over to the relevant agencies.”

The minister said the agencies that defaulted had been asked to come up with their repayment proposals to see how they could be made to repay the money.

“We know that in some cases that money would have already been spent so they will now give us a proposal of how they are going to repay but the money has to be paid,” she said.

“We are also looking at their Treasury Single Account (TSA) to understand how much money they actually have because in some cases these surpluses are in their accounts.

“Our plan is not to grind to a halt the activities of any agency but to institute fiscal discipline in all the agencies.”

Adeosun also said that a circular was issued on November 22, requesting submission of estimates of revenues and expenses for the next three financial years.

Other documents requested were the annual budget, which must be IPSAS-compliant, and projected operating surpluses for review and approval.

According to her, a review team had been set up to evaluate submitted estimates before budget submission to the national assembly.

She said failure to comply with the provision of the FRA to review and approve their budgets as advised would be restricted to payment of salaries only until the budget was regularised.