The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MDA

  • ’10 MDAs, companies, individuals owe FG N5.2tr’

    ’10 MDAs, companies, individuals owe FG N5.2tr’

    Ten Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), companies and individuals are owing the Federal Government N5.2 trillion.

    Out this amount, the Federal Government has been able to recover only N57 billion.

    The Director  Special Projects Federal Ministry of Finance, Aisha Omar, made this disclosure in Gombe, Gombe State during a one-day sensitisation programme for the North-East Geopolitical Zone programme on Federal Government’s debt recovery drive through the Project LightHouse Programme.

    Omar stated: “These debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000+ debtors across ten (10) Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), adding that, the aggravation was still ongoing”.

    The debts include tax liabilities to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), refunds to the government by companies that failed to deliver on projects, unpaid credit facilities granted by the Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture, judgment debts in favor of the government, and debts owed to the Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate by insurance companies, among others.

    She stated that data from Project Lighthouse Programme “revealed that many companies and individuals who owed government agencies and refused to honour their obligations were still being paid, especially through the government platforms such as GIFMIS and Treasury Single Account (TSA) due to lack of visibility over such transactions”.

    The Ministry has taken steps to address revenue loopholes, including issuing a directive to all MDAs to aggregate government debts and obtaining regulatory approval from the Federal Executive Council.

    The functionalities of the debt recovery capability of the Lighthouse Project Programme have also been extended to automate the debt recovery process and make settlements seamless.

    Read Also: UNGA 78: Biden rejects coups in Africa, backs AU, ECOWAS

    The Director emphasized the importance of stakeholders’ cooperation in providing relevant debt-related data to populate the platform. She assured participants that the initiative would significantly improve revenue generation and debt recovery, and she urged all stakeholders to support its implementation.

    The Project consultant, Dr. Abraham Atteh, explained that the initiative focuses on tracking, retrieving, and recovering government debts through the use of technology. Systems will be put in place to block loopholes created by entities that do business with the government.

    Project Light House Programme is a government initiative managed by the Federal Ministry of Finance in Nigeria. It aims to consolidate and recover debts owed to the government by various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

    Through the use of the Debt Analytics and Reporting Application, the programme Aisha Omar said was able to identify and aggregate debts owed the federal government amounting to approximately N5.2 trillion.

    The Project Lighthouse initiative utilises big data analytics technology to address the challenge of debt recovery. Its main objectives include blocking revenue loopholes, identifying new revenue opportunities, optimizing existing revenue streams (especially non-oil revenue), and improving fiscal transparency.

  • Revenue leakages from MDAs affecting payment of salaries, says Dogara

    •CBN: we’ve no record of under-remittance

    HOUSE of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara yesterday blamed irregular payment of salaries by the federal and state governments on non-remittance of revenue generated by federal agencies into the federation account.

    He spoke at the opening of a four-day investigative hearing into alleged under-remittances of revenue to the federation account.

    The investigation was conducted by the James Abiodun Faleke-headed ad-hoc committee.

    But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told the panel that it has no records of unremitted funds by the MDA.

    Dogara, who was represented by Jerry Alagboso (PDP, Imo), frowned at the constant clashes between the Finance ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over revenue remittances and figures.

    He said: “When government is making efforts toward diversifying the economy in order to reduce the country’s over-reliance on the oil sector, it is disheartening to hear repeated allegations of non-remittances of huge amounts of revenue by agencies required to generate and manage our revenue.

    “You may recall that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in July was stalemated, two or three times, due to controversies over unremitted revenue.

    “This led to delays in the payment of salaries by the federal and state governments and other budgetary expenditures in most federal government agencies and establishments.”

    Read also: FAAC: Kwara gets N3.9b for November

    The speaker said the continuous bickering, with respect to revenue remittances and figures between the ministry of Finance and NNPC on one hand, and state governments and revenue generating organs of the Federal Government on the other hand, show some of the many instances of unending issues of revenue leakages in our economy.

    Dogara said: “With the dwindling oil fortunes and the spirited efforts being made in the country to diversify our economy base, there is no gain saying the fact that closing up leakages in our economy has become imperative if we must grow our economy and accelerate the development of the country at this period of economic downturn.”

    However, the CBN Director of Banking Services, Dipo Fatokun, represented by Jack Okituetu, an acting director, said the apex bank has no records of under remittances.

    He said: “We don’t have any record of under remittances as CBN is simply a government bank. We’ve never falsified reports as all the revenue agencies have access to their various accounts and we are not also a revenue collecting agency of government.”

    Ad-hoc committee chair Faleke expressed hope that the outcome of the ongoing investigation will help to reposition the revenue generating system at all levels of government towards adequately achieving the goals and mandate of the committee.

    His words: “Apparently the picture being envisaged after now is a Nigerian economy devoid of leakages, with more available funds required to leverage on the many opportunities that abound.”

    He, however, expressed concern over the level of impunity being perpetuated by the agencies, pointing out that they perpetrate impunity.

    Faleke expressed the determination of the House not to compromise the country’s future.

    His words: “The current state of affairs in Nigeria shows a crunch and cash-strapped economy that seems to be crawling at a slow pace out of recession.

    “This has occasioned a bizarre situation where state governments can barely pay salaries, with borrowing categorising a large chunk of government spending and overall budgetary expenditure being adversely affected by dwindling revenues.

    “Yet the current system has continuously encouraged unpatriotic Nigerians to device ways of diverting our revenues for their personal use at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable aged persons, pensioners, our teachers and civil servants as well as the sick and down trodden.

    “Thus, it could be right to assert that given a transparent and accountable revenue remittance system, we would successfully reduce the overdependence on oil as well as the large amounts of borrowing evident in our society.”

    To the CBN, he said: “We demand for a comprehensive list of all mandates given to your bank to make it a complete process.

    “We want to see precisely how all the transactions were made and FAAC transaction so far till date.

    Okituetu promised to make available all the mandates all the next sitting of the committee.

  • ‘SERVICOM is to re-evaluate MDAs to check level of compliance’

    SERVICOM is to re-evaluate Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to check the level of improvement in service delivery, Mrs Nnenna Akajemeli, national coordinator of the service has said.

    Akajemeli spoke with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on yesterday in Abuja.

    She said the re-evaluation was necessary to check the level of improvement in service delivery and find out if MDAs adhered to SERVICOM’s recommendations.

    “From evaluation, we submit reports to the management of the MDAs and then make recommendations on ways to fill in the gaps discovered.

    “In the cause of submitting reports, issues may arise and some of these issues borders on training, decentralisation of their processes and reducing number of days for accessing specific services.

    “These are the things we go back to check from time to time and it’s a continuous process and we track progress for sustained improvement”, she said.

    She added that some of the organisations were referred to the SERVICOM institute for service improvement training, but if they can’t make it to the institute we go to their offices and train them.

    The MDAs evaluated in the past were government hospitals, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control(NAFDAC), National Open Universities of Nigeria, Federal Airport Authorities (FAAN), among others.

     

  • MDAs too

    •Report indicates we should look for budget padding beyond the National Assembly

    Nigeria’s inability, particularly at the federal level, to get her budget process right since the inception of the current political dispensation is a critical factor why the democratic restoration of 1999 has not resulted in the accelerated development widely anticipated by the people over the last 19 years. Intractable and economically disruptive annual delays in the passage of the budget arising largely from bickering between the legislature and executive on budgetary allocations  has invariably led to avoidable low budget performance, with negative implications, especially for infrastructural development and qualitative social service delivery.

    The National Assembly has also been often vehemently condemned, and rightly too, for undue bloating or padding of the budget, thus unjustifiably increasing its own allocation in order to fund questionable constituency projects and allegedly line the pockets of the legislators.

    An exhaustive report by The Punch newspaper, however, indicates that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the executive branch may be no less guilty of committing serious financial infractions akin to budget padding, with equally deleterious developmental consequences. The report strongly suggested that certain items such as purchase of computers, furniture, maintenance of facilities as well as procurement of stationery and kitchen equipment recur annually in the budget proposals of most MDAs. Since these items should reasonably last for a specific number of years before the onset of depreciation, provision for their annual replacement logically raises valid suspicions.

    For instance, between 2014 and 2018, both under the previous administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent government of President Muhammadu Buhari, a total of N3 billion was allocated for maintenance services at the State House. This was broken down into N1.198 billion for 2014, N577.5 million in 2015, N283 million in 2016, N467 million in 2017 and N416 million for this year. The items covered under this head included maintenance of vehicles/transport equipment, office furniture, buildings/residential quarters, information technology equipment, plants and generators as well as “other maintenance services”.

    Within the same period, honorarium and sitting allowances for the State House was allocated N2billion in five years while fuel and lubricants also for the State House, including vehicles fuel cost, plant/generator fuel cost and cooking gas fuel cost gulped N538.2 billion. Apart from the allocations to the State House, several MDAs were also cited as budgeting humongous amounts annually for assorted purposes, including foodstuff/catering materials, computer software/consumables, refreshment/meals, wildlife conservation, residential rent, cleaning and fumigation, transport/travels, welfare packages as well as sewage charges and generator repairs.

    When account is taken of the replication of such expenditure items at state and local government levels, the amount budgeted to service an extensive bureaucracy as well as hardly productive routine governance activities is unjustifiable within the context of paucity of resources to tackle urgent developmental challenges at all levels. True, some of these expenditure provisions may be unavoidable due to annual revenue shortfalls as well as high rate of obsolescence of facilities in many MDAs as explained by the Director-General of the Federal Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze.

    However, given the many proven cases of widespread fiscal malfeasance in virtually all sectors of governance, including the bureaucracy in all arms of government, there is the need to scrutinise the annual budgetary preparation process to plug any loopholes for resource leakage.

    Indeed, the cost of governance in Nigeria, encompassing avoidable travels and tours, honorarium and sitting allowances as well as refreshment and meals for a resource-famished country like ours is inexcusable. It is also not impossible that some MDAs simply replicate expenditure items from year to year due to a lack of rigour and lazy adherence to familiar routine. Every amount, no matter how negligible, saved from such wastage can be put to productive use.

  • MDAs ‘got N1.580tr for projects’

    Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) got N1,580,270,755,084.44 as capital cost for 2017 budget, the Federal Government said yesterday.

    Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who released the figure in Abuja yesterday, said the N1,580,270,755,084.44 total capital releases for 2017 was remarkably higher than the N1,219,471,747,443.00 total capital releases for 2016.

    In the 2017 capital releases  “Power, Works and Housing received the highest allocation of N523,011,701,723.25 which was 33.10% of the total capital releases. The sector also received the highest in the 2016 capital budget, which was N307,411,749,682.00 (25.21%) of the 2016 capital budget.”

    Defence and Security received the second highest capital releases of N197,596,016,072.02 (12.50%) in 2017, as against N77,532,885,729.00 (6.36%) received in 2016.

    Agriculture and Water Resources got N149,485,276,897.37 (9.46%) in 2017. The sector had received N143,121,925,241.00 (11.74%) of the capital releases in 2016. Transportation received N126,253,042,607.50 (7.99%) of the 2017 capital releases as against the N171,900,597,013.00 (14.10%) in 2016.

    Health and Education got N98,190,277,285.69 (6.21%) for 2017 as against N56,270,030,992.00 (4.61%) the sectors received in 2016.

    Other sectors combined received N485,734,440,498.61, which was 30.74% of the 2017 capital releases. In 2016, N463,234,558,786.00 (37.99%) was disbursed to these sectors.

    Mrs. Adeosun said despite the economic challenges in 2017, the Federal Government fully cash-backed the capital releases.

    She stressed that “the sustained high allocations to key sectors was a reflection of the Federal Government’s commitment to infrastructure development in the country”.

    The minister said the Federal Government was “working assiduously to attract private capital to complement government spending in these key areas”.

  • Govt orders MDAs to submit budget details by Friday

    The Presidency yesterday directed defaulting Ministries Departments and Agencies yest to submit and defend their 2018 budget to do so latest by Friday.

    Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha in a memo dated March 19 said: “It has come to the attention of Government that a number of Agencies, Corporations and Government owned Companies have not fully complied with the provisions of Section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007.”

    “Agencies are reminded that the FRA 2007 provides that consequent upon laying of summary of budget estimates of Agencies listed in the schedule to the FRA alongside the National Budget by Mr. President, it is required that details of such budgets are made available to the National Assembly for consideration and passage. This position was reiterated in the attached publication in the Nation Newspaper of Wednesday, February 7, 2018, by the Senior Special Assistant to the President (SSAP) on National Assembly Matters (Senate).”

    Mr. Mustapha added that President Buhari “has directed:

    (i) That Agencies, Corporations and Government owned Companies in the schedule to the FRA 2007 should comply with the provisions of the law;

    (ii) All submissions (109 copies to the Senate and 360 copies to the House) should be made available to the appropriate Committees of the National Assembly. Copies should also be made available to the SSAP on National Assembly Matters (Senate and House respectively), not later than Friday, 23rd March, 2018; and

    (iii) All Agencies, Corporations and Government Owned Companies should honour invitations to defend their estimates timeously.”

     

     

  • Amosun seeks MDAs’ holistic inputs into 2018 budget

    Amosun seeks MDAs’ holistic inputs into 2018 budget

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun has urged the state’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be holistic, transparent and accountable in their inputs into 2018 budget to give the people a comprehensive Appropriation Bill.

    Amosun spoke yesterday at the Conference Hall of Obas’ Complex in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital, while delivering a keynote address at the Treasury Board meeting on next year’s budget.

    The governor said the MDAs need to be more proactive in the presentation and deliberation of their draft estimates and proposals to be submitted for next fiscal year to have a hitch-free budget presentation to the House of Assembly.

    He said: “This meeting is an avenue for our administration to receive contributions from top government officials, civil and public servants in order to engender understanding, cooperation, speedy service delivery and speedy passage of the 2018 budget by the House of Assembly.”

    Amosun said his administration is committed to leaving behind an enduring legacy for the masses and even generation unborn, hence the need to ensure a holistic approach to the budget.

    The governor said next year’s appropriation will be his administration’s last full year budget.

    He said: “It is, therefore, critical for us to continue to deepen collaboration towards our budgetary process to bequeath our enduring legacy to the next administration and to move the state to an enviable height.”

    The governor admonished the MDAs involved in the budget process and implementation not rest on their oars.

    He added that much was expected of them to lay a good foundation for the residents.

    The Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Ms. Adenrele Adesina said the 2018 Treasury Board meeting was a reflection of the administration’s last six years’ budgets and the reflection of the state’s economic and developmental plan.

    The commissioner noted that the annual Treasury Board meeting was a tool with more powers in the level of disciplines among the various MDAs to derive the state’s Income and Expenditure.

    According to her, it is a neccesity for transparency and accountability.

    Ms Adesina urged the participants to listen to questions and contribute their quota to the = deliberations that would bring about effective and efficient budget next year.

     

  • Reps give CBN, AG six weeks to provide audit reports on TSA

    Reps give CBN, AG six weeks to provide audit reports on TSA

    The House of Representatives has given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAGF) six weeks to provide it with detailed reconciliation and audit reports of the amounts generated so far in the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
    The House said it’s ultimatum was necessitated by the need to know the current and true status of the TSA going by reports that not all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) have complied with the August 2015 directives of the Federal government on the policy.
    The Abubakar Danburam-led ad-hoc committee investigating the status of the TSA said the November 10 deadline is sacrosanct, adding that all money banked in the country are not excluded as long as they have MDAs’ account with them.
    The Committee held a closed door meeting with officials from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Auditor General’s office as well as CBN and some commercial banks.
    According to the Chairman, the Committee was forced to take the decision following the revelation of the  Director of Funds, Accountant General’s office Alexander Adeyemi that there were still leakages in collecting funds from agencies despite the existence of TSA.
    It would be recalled that the Committee was told last month that the TSA has not been audited by the office of the Auditor General since its inception two years ago.

  • Arrears: Unions vow to shut down MDAs

    Organised Labour under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), will  shut down  Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) at the federal level unless the government pays promotion arrears, outstanding salaries and other allowances owed public servants in the next few weeks.

    Giving this indication in Lagos on Tuesday, the ASCSN Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, regretted that more than a year after the promotion arrears were computed by a Presidential Committee and report submitted to the Presidency, the government has continued to ‘dilly-dally’ on the payment.

    “The issue of unpaid entitlements of workers have remained unattended to for some years now and was indeed brought to the attention of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buahri, sometimes ago for necessary action.

    “Thereafter, a circular was issued by the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation directing all MDAs to compile the total sum involved in respect of the unpaid entitlements of their employees for settlements,” the union added.

    According to Lawal, the debts owed some categories of federal public officers include promotion arrears outstanding in some cases since 2007; first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation; and Duty Tour Allowance (DTA).

    Others are mandatory training allowance for training organised by the Office of the Head of the Federation (OHCSF) in 2010, burial expenses, and repatriation allowances, among others.

    “He said the reason for this statement is to alert the general public that the nation may be witnessing series of industrial actions in the public service if no concrete steps are taken to commence the payment of these indebtedness as the general feeling amongst workers is that government is not prepared at all to pay what it is owing them and that its only interest is to pay what it owes contractors.

    “Moreover, the Federal Government had bailed out state governments more than three times in the past one year including the recent one courtesy of the loan refund from the Paris Club to be able to settle their workers’ entitlements.  The same Federal Government has decided to leave its own workers in the cold for no just reason.  This is strange,” he said.

  • Senate begins probe of alleged misuse of IGR by MDAs

    Senate begins probe of alleged misuse of IGR by MDAs

    THE Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under Remittance and other Fraudulent Activities in Collection, Accounting and Remittances of Internally Generated Revenue by Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) running into hundreds of billions of naira will begin hearing tomorrow.
    Senate President Bukola Saraki will inaugurate the committee.
    The committee of eight members with Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West)as chairman, was constituted on Tuesday, November 30.
    It followed a resolution by -the Senate to investigate the alleged misuse, under-remittance and other fraudulent practices in collection, accounting, remittances and expenditure of internally generated revenue by all Revenue Generating Agencies of Federal Government from January 2012 to December 2016.
    Explaining the slight delay in beginning the investigation, Senator Adeola said it was occasioned by the intervening Yuletide and the need to allow agencies concentrate on the defence of their budget estimates in the 2017 Appropriation Bill.
    He noted that with the process of the budget almost out of the way, the committee will have the presence of heads of agencies to throw light on their revenue generation and expenditure profiles.