Directs oil firm, NPA, BPE, 56 others to refund N300bn
The Senate, yesterday, decried the abuse of public office by heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies, (MDAs), particularly the Federal Government revenue generating agencies. It, therefore, directed 59 of the agencies to return over N300 billion allegedly misappropriated into the Federation Account.
The Upper Chamber also ordered that the funds spent without authorisation between 20132015 be remitted to the Treasury within 60 days.
The Senate resolutions were sequel to the consideration of the report of the Committee on Public Accounts on the annual report of the Auditor-General for the Federation, (AGF), on the accounts of the Federation for the year ended 31st December 2015 (Part I1 &1).
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), was indicted for financial recklessness for failing to remit the sum of N3,878,955,039,855.73 trillion revenue from domestic crude oil sales to the Federation Account for the period of January to December 2015.
The Senate noted that deduction from source by the NNPC contravened Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
To mitigate future excuses from the NNPC, the Senate mandated the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, (FAAC), or any other approving authority to, as a matter of urgency, approve a percentage that should be allocated to NNPC monthly as operational cost.
The Senate consequently gave the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, a timeline of 60 days to identify and sanction officers responsible for the mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N54,151,360,000 billion ($274,280,000.00) as exchange loss on External Loans.
The Accountant-General is expected to report back to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts led by Senator representing Edo South, Mathew Urhoghide.
In addition, the Senate gave another 90 days timeline for the Office of the AGF to set in motion the process of recovery of Internal Loans made from other Funds which stands at N390,288,085,668.92 billion and to be paid back into the Special Funds Accounts.
In another vein, the Upper Chamber directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to recover the sum of N378,879,674.99 tax revenue from Webb Fontaine Ltd and remit same to the Federal Inland Revenue Service within six (6) months.
It also called for a review of all companies that were paid from the out-flow of one percent CISS Account which amounted to N39,557,671,843.97.
