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Tag: RMAFC

  • RMAFC, NBET get new helmsmen

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of a Chairman for the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer for Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET).

    According to a statement by the Director (Press) in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Bolaji Adebiyi,  Elias Nwalem Mbam, is the new Chairman for RMAFC.

    Dr. Marilyn Amobi, the statement said, is the new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NBET.

    “Mrs. Amobi’s appointment is for a tenure of four years, ‘’ the statement stated.

  • ‘RMAFC should fix salaries of govt workers’

    The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) should fix salaries of all government workers and not those of political office holders only, activist-lawyer Collins Okeke, has said.

    He believes empowering the RMAFC to fix salaries across board would curb the special treatment accorded elected public office holders to the detriment of workers.

    Okeke, who spoke at a briefing in Lagos by a civil society coalition, One Voice, said: “Why should the RMAFC fix salaries for only the president, vice president, governors and others? It should fix salaries for everybody, from president to the minimum wage earner. Does the minimum wage earner who works for the government not deserve a wardrobe allowance?

    “When it comes to the minimum wage, it is being debated; it is in the pipeline. Palliatives are also in the pipeline, but the wages of public officials is never in the pipeline. RMAFC fixes the same salaries for governors. Judges in all states earn the same thing. But when it comes to minimum wage, governors will say all states are not equal. Why don’t they consider the wealth of each state before fixing governors’ salaries?

    “Let us have a harmonised wage structure. Lawmakers, for instance, should not have a different body that fixes their salaries. This dichotomy should be ended. We must democratise salaries,” Okeke said.

    One Voice Media Committee chair Pastor Adedeji Adeleye said labour ought to have declared strike on the effects of the fuel price hike on workers’ wages, and the effects on the ordinary citizens, rather than over the fuel price hike.

    He said: “Labour needs to query government’s double standard – why the RMAFC should continue to fix salaries and allowances of political office holders and elected officials while the Federal Civil Service Wages Commission fixes salaries for low cadre workers. There is need to harmonise the two commissions to fix all workers’ salaries and allowances from bottom up.”

    One Voice said even while sourcing forex at the secondary market, government must monitor and control their activities to ensure that Nigerians are not further pauperised.

    “There are questions left unanswered: What happened to the crude oil allocation for local refining, that NNPC claims it uses in the form of oil swap? Two refineries (Port Harcourt and Kaduna) are operating at 20 per cent capacity. What is the official price for the refined petroleum products coming out of these refineries? Government should explain to Nigerians the various palliatives and the implementation process,” the group added.

  • N4.9trn unremitted, says RMAFC

    N4.9trn unremitted, says RMAFC

    The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has confirmed that N4.9 trillion was yet to be remitted into the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    A statement signed by the its Spokesperson, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, said: “The figure of N3.2 trillion was from the 2014 Annual Audit Report obtained from the records of the FAAC Technical sub-Committee on Domestic Crude Oil Sales and reconciliation statement as contained in the NNPC’s mandate to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but available records at the Commission’s disposal indicate that between January 2011 and December, 2015, the total indebtedness of NNPC to the Federation Account was N4.9 trillion.”

    Mohammed added that a figure that included NNPC’s claims for subsidy on petroleum products, crude and product losses, strategic reserves and the pipeline maintenance cost contributed to bring the NNPC’s indebtedness to the Federation Account to N4.9 trillion.

    The statement noted that while the said report claimed that NNPC owed  N3.2 trillion to the Federation Account in 2014 from domestic crude sale, the Commission’s records “revealed that the Corporation owed the Federation Account N1.99 trillion only in 2014 from domestic crude sales. “Therefore, the figure quoted by the Auditor-General of the Federation must have included revenues from other sources.”

    With regard to the alleged payment of $235 million realised from the sale of Natural gas into an undisclosed Escrow Account by the NNPC, the Commission explained that the NNPC on behalf of the NLNG had entered into agreements with three International Oil Companies (IOCs)–Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), Total E&P Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) under a Modified Carry Agreement (MCA) proceeds from which are deposited in Escrow Accounts for funding the various gas projects under the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG).

    “The total amount transferred to the various accounts from 2012 to November 2015 was $1.615 billion. The Commission, through the FAAC post-mortem, has consistently requested the NNPC to provide it with updated financial statements on the projects but NNPC was yet to respond,” Mohammed said.

    It would be recalled that the Commission had been working with NNPC to reconcile the figures following a tripartite meeting held with the NNPC, Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) and RMAFC in December last year where it was agreed that in view of the subsidy and other claims by NNPC, the forensic audit of NNPC was very critical in establishing which party was actually indebted to the other. The forensic audit is expected to be concluded by the end of this month.

  • Buhari ‘ll get new revenue formula, says RMAFC

    Buhari ‘ll get new revenue formula, says RMAFC

    The draft reports of the revenue allocation formula as well as the remuneration packages for political, public and judicial office holders are being fine tuned for submission to President Muhammadu Buhari for onward transmission to the National Assembly.

    The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in a statement endorsed by its Head, Public Relations, Ibrahim Mohammed,  yesterday explained that it concluded its own side of the bargain since 2014.

    “As the Commission was in the process of sending the draft report to former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, certain intervening variables crept in to truncate the process. These included the proceedings of the Justice Kutigi-led National Conference and the Senator Ikweremadu-led Constitutional Amendments respectively which also deliberated extensively on the issue of revenue allocation formula review and lastly the 2015 general elections which saw to the emergence of the Buhari administration,” the statement added.

    Mohammed dismissed reports suggesting that the commission was about to withdraw the two sensitive reports stressing that the “RMAFC was yet to make submission of either of the said reports to Mr. President.”

  • RMAFC recovers over N704.2b

    RMAFC recovers over N704.2b

    • Commission goes tough on MDAs that fail to remit to Federation Account

    The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recovered over N704.2 billion in the last five years, its Chairman, Elias Mbam has said.

    Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday at the valedictory briefing to mark the end of his tenure along with that of some members of the Commission, he said RMAFC “expanded the sources of revenue to the Federation Account, with recoveries of over N704.2billion been made, revenue leakages were addressed, verification  is being carried out on the collecting banks and other collecting agencies. Generally, the Commission has addressed vigorously all its Constitutional Mandate”.

    Mbam said he did not have the exact amount recovered. “I don’t have the exact figure of which and which but it is basically in all the generating agencies. A greater proportion is from NNPC. There are some from Central bank, there are some from FIRS. I don’t have the exact figure.

    The Commission, Mbam said, “periodically carried out monitoring and checks on the revenue collecting agencies, including Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, among others. It also conducted monthly post-disbursement monitoring through post-mortem Sub-Committee of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). The Commission recovered over N704.2 billion Naira in the course of monitoring and checks within the period under review.”

    To minimise leakages, the Commission, Mbam said, embarked on  the monitoring and reconciliation of collections and remittances by the collecting banks engaged by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS). The exercise is expected to be a continuous one and over N12.6billion has been established as liability while over N1.8billion has been recovered and remitted to the Federation Account in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    Similarly, “the Commission is also collaborating with FIRS for the reconciliation and recovery of large amount of Tax Liabilities by Federal MDAs, states, and councils. Over N15 billion  has been recovered in the exercise from the reconciliation of tax liabilities of states and local government councils across the country,” Mbam said.

    To enhance revenue accruals to the Federation Account (FA), the Commission, Mbam said “collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to ensure that Solid Mineral Sector contributed to the FA. The Solid Mineral Sector is now contributing to the FA for the first time.  Over N11.3 billion has been remitted to the Federation Account from this Sector as at July 2015.”

    Mbam also disclosed that the Commission has identified other government agencies that are supposed to remit their generated revenue to the Federation Account but are yet to comply. He listed them as Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), among others as government agencies that defaulted in making remittances to the FA.

    Specifically, Mbam frowned at the NPA, NIMASA and NCC agencies, which he said, “are supposed to generate money for the federation, because of the process they generate money, they use federation assets. Take for instance, the NPA, they are using the body of water. Body of water  is not for the federal government. It’s a national asset. So the money they generate should be for the nation, for the three tiers of government, the same thing with NCC. They give licenses for using the air. Does any state own the air? It is for the nation. So those agencies that generate money using our national assets should be owned by the federation.”

    The Commission Chairman expressed concern that revenue from Stamp Duties in respect of electronic transfer running into billions of Naira “is not being remitted to the Federation Account. As a result, billions of Naira are being lost on a daily basis. I am happy to report that the process of correcting these anomalies has reached an advanced stage. Revenue from stamp duty is not generated and paid to the federation account. You know we have a clearing system where all transactions, electronic transactions go”

  • RMAFC: states flouting salary policy

    RMAFC: states flouting salary policy

    The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has accused state governments of not implementing the policy on salaries and allowances for political office holders.

    A federal commissioner in the commission, Alhaji Yakubu Tuktur, spoke at an interactive session with stakeholders in Minna yesterday.

    According to him, the commission was mandated to fix the salaries and allowances of political office holders and elected officials at local, state and national levels.

    [ad id=”403656″]Tuktur said while some states were implementing the salary package below the commission’s recommendations, other had refused to implement the approved package.

    He said the commission had received many complaints on payments of gratuities and severance allowance, vehicle loan and accommodation allowances, especially from the local government level.

    “It is pertinent to note that despite these efforts the commission is still receiving complaints from beneficiaries and most states are not implementing the package for one reason or the other in the light of the foregoing and having implemented the package for more than six years and given our economic realities and agitation of the general public office holders, the commission has decided to commence the next review of the remuneration package.”

     

  • No federal lawmaker should earn more than N1m, says RMAFC

    No federal lawmaker should earn more than N1m, says RMAFC

    •New pay structure coming for public officers

    The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is unaware of lawmakers’ jumbo pay.

    Its Chairman Elias Mbam said yesterday that no senator or House of Representatives member should earn more than N1m monthly, going by the recommendations of the commission, which fixes salaries and wages for public officers.

    Mbam spoke to reporters at the State House in Abuja after a meeting of the RMAFC with President Muhammadu Buhari.

    According to him, a new pay structure that will reflect the economic realities will be proposed next month for all categories of public officers.

    Although President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have slashed their salaries by 50 per cent, federal lawmakers have expressed disinterest in cutting their pay.

    But Mbam told reporters yesterday that if the lawmakers’ salaries are cut by the RMAFC after the review, they must abide by the decision.

    “They do not have a choice; we are guided by the Constitution and we are going to be guided by such laws that are provided for in the Constitution and the oath they swore to obey the laws of the country.

    “We are currently reviewing the subsisting remuneration packages and it is going to reflect the socio-economic realities of today.

    On when a new package will be ready, Mbam said: “We expect that before the end of next month it will be ready. But it will go through a process. It is not something that you will just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It will go through a process and it should be obvious to you the economic realities of the day and it is going to reflect that.

    “Recently, the oil price dropped. Many government agencies, the states and local governments have not been able to pay their salaries. These are some of the issues that made it necessary to review it.

    “It did not start with this administration; we started the review as far back as last year. It is not because of the present administration that we commenced it.”

    He spoke of the President’s advice  “to ensure that we use all legitimate means to make all public office holders take home the remuneration as determined by the Commission and ensure that leakages are blocked and we try to expand the size of the cake”.

    On revenue sharing formula, Mbam said a draft copy is ready but needed the approval of several authorities before a final copy is released.

    “I do not want to give a definite date because it is beyond my control. I do not determine when the process will be concluded but as far as the Commission is concerned, we have concluded our work and announced to the general public that we have a draft.

    “But you know it goes through a process before it finally becomes a law,” he said

    A statement by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on (Media and Publicity), Mallam Garba Shehu, on the meeting said President Buhari blamed past administrations for the situation in which Nigeria is forced to spend billions of naira annually on alleged subsidies for petroleum products.

    Shehu quoted the president as saying that the escalation of petroleum subsidy payments over the recent years was due to the deliberate neglect of the nation’s refineries, oil pipelines and other related infrastructure in order to allow the importation of petroleum products and for corruption to thrive.

    The President restated his huge disappointment with the way Nigeria’s oil industry has been run since he left office as Petroleum Minister and Military Head of State. He said he was convinced that if the development of the country’s domestic refining capacity and petroleum products distribution network had kept pace with national demand, there would not have been any need for the huge subsidies being paid to importers.

    “They allowed the infrastructure to collapse so that their cronies can steal by bringing in refined products from overseas,” Buhari said.

    The President urged the chairman and members of the RMAFC, who availed him of their view on the vexed issued of petroleum subsidy payments, to go “back to the drawing board” and come up with more humane proposals to rescue ordinary Nigerians from the “wicked manipulation” of the country’s oil industry by corrupt operators.

    Buhari also warned that severe sanctions will be visited on any individual or organisation that violates the directive on the payment of all national revenue into the Federation Account.

    He said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other MDAs which previously relied on the laws establishing them to retain all or part of revenues collected by them, did so illegally and must now comply with the Constitution by paying all revenues to the Federation Account.

    Buhari also chided the RMAFC for approving excessive remunerations for some political office holders and urged the commission to seek a proper interpretation of its powers and address the public outcry against the unreasonably high payments.

    Mbam disowned media reports of the salaries and remuneration running into several millions of naira being paid to National Assembly members.

    According to some of the reports, the federal lawmakers are earning as much as N4 million every month.

    But Mbam said that no member of the National Assembly should receive more than N1 million as salary going by the calculations of the Commission which have been published on its website.

    He said “We have done a lot in informing the general public on the true position of the renumeration packages.

    “First and foremost, it is on our website. It is clearly written there and we have had course to publish these renumeration packages severally in many national dailies.

    “We have also had interactions with press at different fora where we explained what the commission had determined.

    “What we read on the pages of newspapers is not known to the Commission because there is no member of the National Assembly, based on what we determined, that should earn up to N1million per month.

    “We are currently reviewing the subsisting renumeration packages and it is going to reflect the socio-economic realities of today.”

    He said the foremost challenge of the Commission is improper funding and that it deserves financial autonomy so that it can benefit from the advantage of federal government’s first line charge.

    Mbam also demanded for powers of enforcement and sanction for the RMAFC to enable it fully implement its mandate to fix the salaries and emoluments of allý elected and appointed public officials, including in the judiciary, at all tiers of government.

    He said: “One of the challenges is that the commission is not properly funded and we are saying that we expect that the Commission should be one of the agencies of government that should have financial autonomy. The best way to do that is to include it as one of the agencies that will benefit from first line charge.

    “The second is to give the Commission the power of enforcement. They should review the Act establishing the Commission so that it can have power of enforcement and sanctions on any of the defaulting Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”

  • N9 billion scandal

    N9 billion scandal

    In the expected era of change, the jumbo pay for lawmakers and ministers is obscene and unacceptable

    The reprehensible allowances allotted to elective and appointive officers of state by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), even though legal are odiously immoral. It is condemnable that officers of state can hide under the guise of collecting what is legally due to them to fleece the country. We are perturbed that incoming senators, House of Representatives’ members and also ministers to be appointed by President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, will be depleting the public till by N9bn upon assumption of office.

    Isn’t this ludicrous? We wonder why housing allowance for these men/women should be 200 per cent of annual salary; furniture allowance – 300 per cent of annual salary per year and motor vehicle loan – 400 per cent of annual salary. But more to come as the regular allowances built into the salaries of these officials are scandalous. The lawmakers will commence collection of these allowances immediately after the new president inaugurates the eighth National Assembly on June 5, when the tenure of the seventh National Assembly would have expired.

    Why should a nation in wanton corruption and with a lot of deficit in infrastructure be paying a total of: housing- N433, 649,600m for 109 senators per four years at N4, 052,800 yearly per senator: House of Representatives’ total- N1, 421,412,150 for four years at N3, 970,425 per member each year. For furniture allowance; a total of N650, 474,400 will be spent on the Senate with each of the entitled 107 senators collecting N6, 079,200. The total furniture allowance for House of Representatives members is N2, 132,118,225 with each of entitled 358 members collecting N5, 955,637.50. For vehicle loan, each of the 107 senators collects N8, 105,600 totalling N867, 299,200 for Senate while each of the 358 representatives gets N7, 940,850.50 totalling N2, 842,824,479. Unfortunately, it is on record that in 2007, the RMFAC commendably turned down requests made by the current Senate President David Mark through a letter dated November 15, 2007 titled “Monetisation policy as it affects senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” stating that the vehicle loans for senators totalling about N856m to the sixth Senate members be converted to grants for official cars. But RMFAC was ignored in the end.

    The Federal Government provides official accommodation for Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, respectively. The Federal Capital Territory Administration is currently building new houses for them.

    Furthermore, the lawmakers’ vehicle maintenance and fuelling – 75 per cent of their monthly salary; personal assistants – 25 per cent; domestic staff – 75 per cent; entertainment – 30 per cent; utilities – 30 per cent; newspapers/periodicals – 15 per cent; wardrobe – 25 per cent; house maintenance – five per cent and constituency – 250 per cent.

    There are other entitlements that they do not receive directly but are provided and paid for by the government. Government picks the bills of their special assistants, security, legislative aides and medical expenses. The lawmakers are also entitled to tour duty/recess allowance/estacode; for a senator, the tour duty allowance is N37, 000 per night; estacode is $950 per night and the recess allowance is 10 per cent of their annual salary. For House of Representatives’ members; the tour allowance – N35, 000 per night; estacode – $900 per night and the recess allowance – 10 per cent of annual salary.

    On the executive side; housing; a minister gets N3, 915,160 totalling N140, 945,760 for 36 ministers at one per state. Furniture; a minister collects N6, 079,200 totalling N218, 851,200 for the 36. And vehicle loan: a minister gets N7, 830,320 totalling N281, 891,520 for all ministers. Scandalously, the total cost to the nation on housing, furniture and vehicle allowances for incoming lawmakers and ministers amount to about N7.3bn. Yet they are still entitled to the remaining N1.7bn meant for motor vehicle maintenance, fuelling, and others.

    The ministers’ allowances are: motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance – 75 per cent of salary; personal assistan t -25 per cent; domestic staff – 75 per cent; entertainment – 45 per cent; utilities-30 per cent; monitoring – 20 per cent and; newspapers/periodicals – 15 per cent. Government caters for the ministers’ security personnel, medicals and special assistants. A minister collects amongst other s- tour duty allowance – N35, 000 per night; estacode-$900 per night and the leave allowance – 10 percent of annual salary.

    For the special advisers to the president-elect: housing allowance – N3, 885,750; furniture – N5, 828,625; motor vehicle loan-N7, 771,500. Also, the special adviser collects allowances such as motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance – 75 per cent of their salaries; personal assistant – 25 per cent; domestic staff – 75 per cent; entertainment – 45 per cent; utilities – 30 per cent; and newspapers/periodicals – 15 per cent. Again, government also provides for their security personnel, medicals and special assistants. The tour duty allowance – N25, 000 per night; the estacode – $800 per night and; leave allowance – 10 percent of annual salary.

    We call on the RMFAC to quickly seek amendment of the law dishing out this kind of unsustainable allowances to these sets of public officers. The commission should realise that these people are called upon to serve the country and not to milk her dry by seeing the call as an avenue to make debauched fortune. What obtains at the federal level is equally being replicated in the states, giving room to corruption galore. At the root of this challenge is the warped federal system in place in the land. Quite sadly, after collecting this kind of obscene pay and making money from other sources at the expense of the state, the country would still provide severance pay to some of these elected officers at the expiration of their tenures. After all, the severance pay of outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, non-returning federal lawmakers, ministers and aides to the president will reportedly cost the nation N3.24bn. What double jeopardy!

    The reality is that there is a preponderance of excessive comfort amongst those holding elective and appointive positions in this country. This should not be so as it acts as disincentive to those who have toiled for decades in other sectors to make the country a better place for all. Our First Republic elected officers, particularly the legislators, did not enjoy such over-pampering yet, they did their job creditably. Indeed, they did their law making on part time basis. In many other countries, including the very rich ones, there is nothing special about being a legislator or minister. These people leave among the ordinary citizens in whose interest they make laws, board public buses and share a lot other things in common with the people. If anything, these mouth-watering perquisites that our elected and appointed officers enjoy make people want to die contesting for these offices or make them reluctant to leave when their time is over.

    It is inequitable, unfair and unacceptable for people who should be servants of the people to be waxing fat at the expense of the ordinary citizens. Gen Buhari has promised to look into this; he should do so without delay. What we pay these categories of people is out of sync with the national minimum wage. It is simply unsustainable and outlandish.