House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has intensified its investigation into the alleged failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other government-owned enterprises to remit operating surplus due to the Federal Government.
During a hearing on Tuesday, the committee directed the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to submit comprehensive records of outstanding remittances, deductions from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and refunds already made.
Committee member Gboyega Isiaka expressed concern over poor revenue performance, saying, “Considering our GDP, ours is one of the lowest on the continent, at about 16 per cent.
Business entities are expected to return about 80 per cent of their operating surplus, while others remit between 20 and 50 per cent.”
He added, “It is not enough to say they remitted 80 per cent of their surpluses. What exactly is the surplus they are declaring? We need to examine that against the assets under their control, as well as the revenues they ought to have paid but have not.”
The Director of Revenue and Investment at the OAGF, Makinde Mogaji, told lawmakers that the CBN allegedly owes the Federal Government N5.3 trillion in unremitted operating surplus despite previous recovery efforts.
Mogaji said, “Early last year, the CBN was owing the Federal Government N5.3tn as operating surplus. Despite the efforts of the Public Accounts Committee to recover the money, it has not been paid.”
Accountant-General Shamseldeen Ogunjimi defended the government’s auto-deduction policy, stating, “That was an ingenious way of taking, in advance, what was due to government, and it helped us generate substantial revenue last year,” while noting that some agencies challenged the deductions and secured reversals.
He also explained, “There have been occasions when government needed to meet critical financial obligations, and we temporarily utilised funds belonging to some agencies. It is essentially a loan, and we have been refunding those agencies.”
Committee Chairman Bamidele Salam rejected the explanation, warning that agencies such as UBEC, NASENI and others had complained that deductions from their statutory allocations prevented them from carrying out key public responsibilities.
The committee ordered the OAGF to provide detailed records of outstanding operating surplus owed by the CBN, NNPCL and other enterprises, alongside evidence of deductions, refunds and outstanding balances as the investigation continues.
