President Buhari approves special audit of WAEC, NECO, others

 

 

The Federal Government has ordered a “special audit” of the books of some government funded agencies to get a clearer picture of their expenses.

It was gathered that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the special audit of the agencies when some irregularities were discovered in their books.

According to a source, who declined to be named because he is not permitted to talk to the media, the government wants to “look into the expenses, printing costs (considered very high), revenue sharing contracts and other suspected irregularities of these government funded bodies”.

The special audit is part of the government’s “efforts to focus on non oil revenues generated through its board and agencies, which are not accounted for and, therefore, resulting leakages.

For the special audit is the West African Examination Council (WAEC). In 2014, WAEC’s salary/overhead capital from the Federal Government of Nigeria totalled N4.8 billion representing 100 per cent funding by the Federal Government.

The examination body’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from fees made from public sale of forms and other examination materials was put at N16.6 billion from the 2014 accounts.

What triggered the government’s interest in the financial activities of WAEC was that “all its IGR was spent on examination costs with very high charges for printing, travelling etc, resulting in lots of waste”.

“Just N25 million was paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF),” the source said.

Also for special audit is the National Examinations Council (NECO), which in 2014 received N4.9 billion, representing 100 percent funding of its activities. The same year, NECO was said to have generated N11.7 billion, but “the same story all over again, with almost all the money spent and just N6.9 million remitted the to CRF”.

Auditors have been assigned to these examination bodies to examine their transactions, with a view to making them remit more to the CRF and to boost the government’s revenue base outside crude oil sales.

Late last week, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, issued a circular on guidelines regarding budgeting, revenue and expenditure aimed at ensuring that Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) remit revenue and generate operating surpluses which, by law, ought to be credited to Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

The circular is aimed at compelling Boards and Agencies which operate outside budgetary control to comply with Section 22(2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), which lists agencies , such as Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), NIMASSA, NAFDAC, JAMB, NTA, NCC, CAC, NECO, to remit 80 percent of their operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The Minister of Finance had lamented that “records show very poor compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Some agencies have never credited the Consolidated Revenue Fund despite having salary, capital and overhead financed by the Federal Government. Indeed, cost to income rates of 99.8 percent have been the average, meaning that they spend all their internally generated revenue and subventions released to them.”

The Minister said such practices are not sustainable in any economic climate and with the current serious economic challenges being faced by Nigeria, “this can no longer be tolerated. Accordingly, all revenue generating agencies must comply with the circular and cut their costs.”

In the circular sent to MDAs, the Minister said “revenues generated by all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must be reported on a gross basis prior to any deductions. Also, all self-funded Federal Agencies are to limit their annual expenditures from their internally generated revenues to not more than 75 percent of their total gross revenue while fully funded agencies are to remit all their internally generated revenue (IGR) to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).”

The Circular added that “henceforth, 80 percent of the resulting operating surplus by MDAs should be remitted into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) on a quarterly basis, in accordance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”

To ensure sustained and regular monitoring of the financial activities of MDAs, the circular required “all MDAs funded through the annual budget must submit monthly Expenditure Transcripts and Revenue Returns, to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), while agencies not funded through the annual Federal Government budget are to prepare and submit Quarterly Management Accounts including Revenue Returns to the OAGF.”

The Minister warned all MDAs “that in line with Financial Regulations (FR) 107, the Accountant-General of the Federation will carry out routine revenue monitoring and inspection visits to the MDAs to verify compliance with the new guidelines. 

The circular said any Accounting Officer/Chief Executive Officer of MDAs that defaults in remitting revenues as appropriate and as when due shall be sanctioned accordingly and the renewal of the tenure of appointment of Accounting Officers/Chief Executive Officers shall be tied to their compliance with the content the new guidelines.”