*Directs all revenues paid into govt coffers for appropriations
By Andrew Oota
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has directed the Finance committee of the upper legislative chamber to compile a list of all agencies and heads of government absent at the on-going interactive session on the 2024-26 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal strategy paper for possible sanction or outright removal from office .
The senate joint committees of Finance ,Appropriations ,National planning and Local and Foreign Debts has put together a five-day interactive session with MDA’s and parastatals of the federal government on the 2024-26 MTEF presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for consideration.
The Senate also directed all revenue generating agencies to henceforth remit all revenues generated to the Accountant General of the federation for appropriation ,as against the subsisting pattern where agencies generate ,spend and remit what they deem fit as mandated by the various acts of parliament in the name of percentage.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the interactive session , the Senate President any agency that fails to attend the interactive session will be deemed to be against the success of the current administration.
” I demand the list of all the agencies that have refused to attend . Any agency that sends a representative here must not be attended to. No agency should send a representative here, any of them that is not here is not fit to be there because I have left an important engagement of my party to be here. Those absent are not interested in the success of administration and the president must take a second look at that appointee.
“We are here to plan and refusing to join in this planning means sabotage and we should not allow that to happen”.
According to the Senate President , the current administration is determined to harness all it’s resources for the development of the country and urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service ,FIRS to work towards ensuring all revenue leakages as much as possible .
Akpabio equally told the participants at the meeting that the current Government will have no option than to borrow ,”however we must also ensure that we are careful not to over borrow and we must also apply the monies we borrow into judicious use by watching our borrowing deficits”.
He maintained that ,”let me also say this , government agencies cannot continue to generate, spend and remit what they feel they should remit. It is true that some laws allow some agencies to spend a certain percentage of what they generate ,but those laws cannot be seen to be above the provisions of the constitution that mandates all monies put into the consolidated revenue fund for appropriations . We must not allow these agencies generate monies and spend on frivolities. This is not to stifle you but to ensure that the constitutional provisions of the constitution are obeyed at all times “.
Earlier in his opening remarks ,the chairman of the Senate committee on Finance , senator Sani Musa said, “this interactive session is not just a collection of figures but a deliberate exercise that projects Governments spending .
“This Senate will scrutinized all documments to ensure that the interest of the people is captured and that there lives are made better.
“We have a moral imperative to safeguard the economic interest of the generality of Nigerians we will do it to the best of our ability.
“We have formidable challenges as a country , the fall of the naira, removal of the fuel subsidy that has brought untold hardship on the people and state of the economy but our resolve to fix all this is also solid.
“This Assembly will conduct investigations to block leakages and investigate frivolous spendings by the heads of agencies .We will do our job without fear or favour and will do justice to all .
“As Parliamentarians we will not hesitate to do our job as required by law”.
The joint committees however adjourned till next week Monday to allow all agencies submit there presentations to the committee .
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