Senate Committee on Finance on Tuesday announced that it would from Wednesday start full probe into all the revenue generating Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
It said the investigation is meant to establish the MDA’s level of compliance to relevant laws on internally generated revenue as well as to ensure that more revenue accrued to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Announcing this during the 2021 budget defence of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Solomon Adeola, said that the probe ought to have started on Tuesday (today) but had to be shifted to Wednesday because of the demise of a House of Representatives member and the suspension of legislative activities by the Senate.
“There is no doubt that many MDAs are in default in their remittances of revenue generated during their operation as stipulated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 as well as the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
“In view of the dire straits that Nigeria is in now, this cannot be allowed to continue and the investigation is to get to the bottom of the non-compliance by MDAs,” Adeola said.
H went further to explain that the investigation will also include the remittances or otherwise of the 1 per cent Stamp Duties accruing from all awarded contracts by all MDAs which were not remitted to FIRS, emphasising that this includes all government agencies beyond the over 460 revenue generating MDAs.
The investigation, according to Adeola, is going to cover the period between 2014 till date.
He added that submissions already made by MDAs would be corroborated by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the records with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission who are part of the technical team of the senate investigation.