RMAFC, EFCC ‘uncover $205m unremitted revenue’ by oil firms

ABUBAKAR YUNUS Abuja

Mohammed Bello, chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), says the commission uncovered $205.01 million unremitted to the federation account by oil and gas companies through joint efforts with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a statement by Nwachukwu Christian, RMAFC’s spokesperson, said Bello spoke on Tuesday when he paid a recent courtesy visit to Abdulrasheed Bawa, EFCC’s chairman.

He said the RMAFC had been partnering with the EFCC in monitoring and tracking all accruable revenue from revenue-generating agencies into the federation account.

Bello said the commission had also recovered over N192 billion, including N74 billion between 2008 and 2015, as well as N118 billion between 2016 and 2019, with the help of the EFCC.

“Bello recalled that collaborations between the two agencies over the years led to the recovery of more than one hundred and ninety-two billion naira into the Federation account,” the statement reads.

“This is made up of N74bn covering 2008 — 2015 and N118bn covering 2016 – 2019 monitoring and recovery exercises on revenue-generating agencies, including banks and companies.

“He informed that this is in addition to the discoveries of over two hundred and five million dollars ($205,013,760) from some companies in the oil and gas sector who refused to remit same to government coffers but rather sued RMAFC and EFCC with the claim that both agencies have no right by law to request for such huge sum belonging to the federal government to be remitted into the federation account.”

The RMAFC boss further reiterated the commission’s commitment to strengthening its collaboration with the EFCC.

In his response, Bawa expressed the readiness of the EFCC to strengthen its ties with RMAFC in increasing revenues for the nation while blocking leakages.

This, according to Bawa, will be better achieved by prosecuting defaulting revenue-generating agencies, having been empowered by law to liaise with agencies like RMAFC in the execution of their mandates.

While promising to avail RMAFC of the opportunity for capacity building from EFCC academy, Bawa called for re-examining the delay in revenue remittance for timely remittances from revenue-generating agencies.