Still grinding under the cash crunch that made it impossible for the Federal Government to pay outstanding N160 billion arrears of last February federal allocations to states, the government still appears to be treating with kid gloves some revenue generating agencies that failed to remit over N58 billion they collected on behalf of the FG into the Consolidated Revenue Fund as required by law. Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, accused the agencies and banks of conniving to deny government of the generated fund. The FG, according to her, had set a June 17 deadline for the outstanding remittances to be made or the bank accounts of the affected agencies will be closed and the agencies and complicit banks prosecuted.
"This unwholesome practice has persisted despite the efforts of the Office of the Accountant- General of the Federation (OAGF) to encourage the agencies and the affected banks to do the right thing... Rather than comply, the agencies and banks, through their lawyers, have engaged in all manner of legal subterfuge to ensure that monies which are due to the Federal Government are not remitted", the minister lamented. She said the objective of the conspiracy was to keep government monies indefinitely in accounts earning interest for individuals at the expense of the FG and Nigerian people. Okonjo-Iweala said her ministry traced the unremitted N58 billion to various bank accounts.
It is obvious, however, that the FG's magisterial threat may not go beyond mere sabre-rattling, considering the fact that the economic sabotage has been going on for decades with no revenue agency or bank made to pay dearly for the brazen fraud, to public knowledge. In a keynote address she delivered at a oneday workshop on e-Payment of taxes and rendition of returns by Ministries, Departments and Agencies in 2009, Federal Inland Revenue Service's (FIRS) former Executive Chairman, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, had revealed that banks in the country colluded with government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to use tax revenues to award contracts without remitting the funds to government's coffers. It was also alleged at that event that MDAs colluded with banks in misappropriating tax returns; and that in some cases, where the correct tax deductions were made, the classification of the tax types were fraudulent or not indicated at all.
Acting Chairman of the FIRS, Mr. Kabiru Mashi, also told the House of Representatives Committee on Finance recently that out of a total of N83 billion Nigerian banks collected on behalf of the government in recent times, they remitted only N77 billion, leaving the balance of N6 billion unaccounted for. Besides, Director-General of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, in a document titled as 'FGN 2013 Budget: Fiscal Consolidation with Inclusive Growth', made public last April, decried the non-remittance of collections by revenue generation agencies as one of the challenges threatening the implementation of the 2013 budget. "Revenue challenges facing the budget are independent revenue non-full remittance by revenue generating agencies; taxes collection efficiency issues (Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian Custom Service); pipeline vandalism and oil theft... When I say challenges, they are not peculiar to this year's budget", Okogu said.
What more facts are needed to prove that the fraud has been on for donkey years without the FG taking decisive steps to punish the crooks it positioned as revenue agencies, as well as their collaborators who toy with state funds? Are the agencies, their chief executives and principal officers faceless? The truth is, had the FG applied just one tenth of the iron cast will it often invests in fuel subsidy removal and hikes in the pump price of fuel to bringing revenue remittance defaulters to book, the errant agencies would have since called themselves to order. Perhaps, but for the cash shortage the FG is currently contending with, the question of unremitted N58 billion would not have arisen at all. Yet frauds of the nature under discourse not only underscore the absence of discipline, accountability and transparency in the conduct of government business in the country, but buttress the ineptitude of superintending authorities in injecting discipline and sanity into the system. Of what relevance then are General Orders and Financial Instructions in the public service if they cannot be used to check official fraud?
National Mirror