More revelations have been made by Governor Willy Obiano of Anambra State who addressed the press at the end of National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja. He said time has come for the federal government to stop financial abuses by agencies, which collect revenue on behalf of the Federal Government and spend about 90 per cent of it on their expenditure.
Obiano said “The Finance Minister reported to the council certain activities of some revenue generating agencies that amounted to financial abuse of the revenue they generate.
“They include paying salaries above RAMFAC, which is Revenue Mobilisation Financial Accounts Committee, specifications.
According to him, “Converting official cars to personal ownership, monetizing medical allowances arbitrarily, unapproved overseas travels, lavish training allowances, excessive personal loan approvals, including unapproved mortgages are major infractions committed by MDAs.
“The Ministry of Finance and RAMFAC are working together to rein in these abuses as these revenue agencies raise as much as N1.5 trillion and spend almost 90 per cent of it on its recurrent expenditure.”
According to Obiano, the minister informed NEC that the sharp practices had gone on for a decade.
He noted that the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, was aggrieved, explaining the continuous perpetration of the abuses by the agencies for the past decade, adding that efforts were being made to stop such malpractice.
The Anambra State Governor who is currently seeking for reelection, said the minister added that such financial abuses, where the agencies hide the revenues that ought to go to the federation account, would now be exposed and terminated.
He said the minister also reported to NEC that as at November 2016, the Excess Crude Account stood at $2.4 billion.
Obiano further said Adeosun also reported that $1.1 billion was disbursed in October to 35 states while N6.3 billion had been disbursed to each of the 35 states of the federation.
On ecological fund, he said N2 billion was reported to have been paid to the states by the last administration, but some states complained they did not receive equal share of the fund while others did not get anything at all.
