The Ministry of Finance is taking new steps to improve accountability and transparency in the revenues accruable to the federation account.
This is following the consistent allegations that some revenue generating agencies are not remitting what is due to the federation account.
The Auditor General of the Federation had last week accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and some revenue generating agencies of not remitting N3.3 trillion into the federation accounts.
The NNPC had rejected the findings of the Auditor General stating that the audit query it raised over the non-remittance of N3.235 trillion to the Federation Account was erroneous. The corporation had insisted that its balance to the federation account is N326 billion.
To avoid these conflicts the Ministry of Finance says that sequel to the approval at the last FAAC meeting, three independent financial analysts will be engaged to work on the process of post mortem reconciliation of revenue generating agencies account with that the of the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry explained that the Post-Mortem Sub-Committee is to enhance accountability, improve reconciliations and ensure transparent process in respect of all the revenues accruable to the Federation Account.
The sub-committee is saddled with the responsibility of examining the books of accounts of all revenue agencies including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIIRS), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC`), the Customs Service, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Ministry of Mines and Steel. It is expected to report deficiencies observed to the Federation Account Committee and recommend the way forward.
Though the un-reconciled differences are no longer there, with the increased oversight of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the transparency of the NNPC, it will be easy for the sub-committee to achieve better results.
The committee, which reports to the Federation Account on a monthly basis, was originally set up to encourage revenue reconciliation and block leakages through the use of technology.
