Dogara
The
continuous face-offs between the Ministry of Finance, Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), State Governments and revenue
generating organs of the Federal Government on the other hand,
emphasise the gravity of revenue leakages in our economy, Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said.
Speaking
at the National Assembly, during an investigative hearing organised
by the ad-hoc committee set up to cause investigation into the
activities of Ministries, Departments,
Agencies and other institutions responsible for
revenue remittances into the Federation
Account and other matters arising in such regard, he stated that
attaining economic growth and development and reviving dwindling oil
fortunes cannot be achieved unless all revenue leakages are blocked.
He
said, “You may all recall that
the Federation Account Allocation Committee 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. The continuous face-offs
with respect to revenue remittances and figures between the Ministry
of Finance and NNPC on one hand as well as State Governments and
revenue generating organs of the Federal Government on the other
hand, only show some of the many instances of unending issues of
revenue leakages in our economy.
“With
the dwindling oil fortunes, and the spirited efforts being made in
the country to diversify our economic base, there is no gain saying
the fact that closing up leakages in our system has become imperative
if we must grow our economy and accelerate the development
of the country at this period
of economic downturn.
“At
this period, when government is
making efforts towards 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 generating and
managing our revenue. ”
Hon
Dogara also disclosed that the report expected from the committee
would guide the House to make appropriate resolutions with a view to
averting further under-remittances of revenue to the Federation
Account, if any.
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