As part of measures to ensure transparency, the Federal Government has begun holistic investigations into the financial activities of some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), including the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
It was gathered that the federal government is appalled by the shady conduct of government businesses in these MDAs who collect revenues in dollars only to remit same in naira into government coffers.
This disclosure was made yesterday by the Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, who briefed State House Correspondents after the monthly National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa.
According to Ayade, the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, informed the Council of the sharp practices by the revenue generating agencies, saying that the practice was not limited to those mentioned.
He said, “A brief report on the FGN agencies remitting dollar revenues in naira into the Federation account was also given by the CBN governor. He said investigations are on-going. Such agencies include but not limited to NNPC, NIMASA and NPA.”
He also disclosed that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Anastasia Nwobia, told the Council that the balance on Excess Crude Accounts (ECA) stood at $2.2 billion as at 15th of October.
On the matter of collateralised loans for states, Ayade said, “Also on the provision of provisional loans to states based on collateralisation of the excess crude account, the CBN governor briefed that 27 states have made requests for the N10billion facility and is currently being processed. He has called on the affected states to complete all necessary documentation for the same money to the 27 states. It should be recalled at this time that not all states have indicated interest in this ECA collateralised loan.”
He added that the Vice President had assured those states that expended funds on federal government projects of their refunds as soon as their claims were verified.
Also yesterday, states’ governors warned that in the face of continued shortfalls in accruals to the federal government, the bailout funds from the federal government would still not be enough for the states to take care of the backlog of salaries.
The states, however, gave assurances that any bailout received from the federal government for the purpose of offsetting backlog of salaries owed their workers would be used for that purpose only.
There has been speculation that some states planned to divert the bailout funds into other projects. The governors said that they had no plan to divert the funds.
Responding to questions at the briefing, Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, warned that even the bailout funds would not be enough to take care of salaries in the face of continued shortfalls in revenues accruing to the federal government.
He said, “Bailout is a short term measure on arrears of salaries. But the truth is that the accruals would still not be enough and final solution to the accruals shortfall in the payment of salaries still has to be found.”
The states also said that the federal government had assured them that it would assist them in tackling the crisis created by floods in affected states.
Other governors at the briefing apart from Ayade and Mimiko, include those of Sokoto, Aminu Tambuwal and Taraba’s Darius Ishaku.