The Senate on Wednesday threatened to invoke its constitutional powers against more than 30 federal revenue-generating agencies and government-owned enterprises over alleged violations of statutory revenue remittance laws and refusal to honour invitations to appear before its Committee on Finance.
Our correspondent reports that the warning followed a point of order raised during plenary by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, who accused the agencies of failing to comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Finance Act 2022 by allegedly retaining a substantial portion of revenues that should have been paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Musa informed the Senate that the committee’s ongoing investigation had uncovered what he described as widespread non-compliance with the legal framework governing the management of government revenues. According to him, several agencies had allegedly reversed the statutory revenue-sharing formula by retaining about 80 per cent of their internally generated revenue while remitting only 20 per cent to the Federal Government.
He further alleged that some of the affected agencies had failed to make the required remittances since 2020, thereby withholding public funds running into billions of naira that should have accrued to the government.
The lawmaker also expressed concern over what he described as the continued disregard for legislative oversight, noting that despite repeated invitations, many of the affected agencies failed to appear before the Senate Committee on Finance to explain their revenue records and remittance practices.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, while sustaining the point of order, described the allegations as weighty and deserving of immediate legislative attention.
‘This is a very serious matter,’ the Senate President said, directing the Finance Committee Chairman to return to the chamber with a substantive motion outlining specific recommendations for Senate action.
Among the agencies named were the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd); the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC); the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.