Emma  Ujah,  Abuja Bureau Chief 

The Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Mr. Muhammad Shehu has called for greater collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to plug revenue leakage in government agencies and recover unremitted revenues from Government agencies. 

 He made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede in his office, today, in Abuja. 

Mr. Shehu said,” We are calling on EFCC for more collaboration, not only in the area of enforcement but also intelligence gathering and data sharing with respect to government revenue from any source. 

 “The collaboration with your organisation in the area of enforcement served as an impetus to the success recorded in our recovery exercise.

” It is therefore important to bring to the fore that the collaboration between RMAFC and EFCC is crucial in addressing the challenges of unremitted revenue to the Federation Account.” 

The Commission’s boss also sought the assistance of the EFCC in respect of capacity building for the staff of RMAFC, especially in the area of forensic investigation.

He faulted the practice in which Government Owned Enterprises (GOE)  were allowed to generate revenue, spend from it and remit the balance as operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). 

The practice, he said, was not known to the Constitution as all agencies were constitutionally mandated to remit the revenues generated in gross to the Federation Account as prescribed in section 162 (1) of the 1999 constitution, as amended. 

He quotes it’s provision, saying,  “The Federation shall maintain a special account to be called, ‘The Federation Account’ into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation, except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the Personnel of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or Department of Government charged with responsibility for Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

The Chairman recalled the collaboration between RMAFC and EFCC in 2013 when  forensic consultants were engaged to recover unremitted and under-remitted revenues collected or  deducted from the third party by the banks to the Federation Account covering a period of 2008 to 2015, where N74 billion (Seventy Four Billion Naira) was recovered. 

He also disclosed that in 2021, the RMAFC engaged another set of consultants in synergy with EFCC and expanded the scope of recovery to include the Public sector and oil and gas sector for a period covering 2016 to 2019 with the approval of Mr. President. 

 That exercise, according to him has so far recovered over N216 Billion (Two hundred and sixteen Billion Naira) to the appropriate government coffers and still going on.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the EFCC  pladged enhanced collaboration between the two organisations to ensure proper management of government revenue. 

He emphasized that  the country could only the desired economic growth  with the enthronement of transparency and accountability in the conduct of government  business. 

 Mr. Olukoyede urged RMAFC to look into the  loopholes in the revenue generation and  mobilisation system that  allowed for leakage and address them.

 He said, “There are things we have been able to do together within the scopes of our mandate and your mandate as well. Transparency and accountability should be embedded in our public life as a nation. That’s the only way we can move forward.

“One of the things the two agencies are supposed to focus on more now besides recoveries is our systems. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with us as Nigerians but with the system that we run here,  if you bring in the people that make things work in their own countries to our system here, they would be  corrupt.  

“There is an entrenched system here that encourages people to steal, and it would appear as if nothing would happen. Let’s look at our system of revenue generation, the system that allows leakages in mobilisation and appropriation of funds. If we don’t look at the system, we will continue to chase shadows.

“Let’s get our priorities right. I see no reason why a ministry that has no business with project execution would be awarding contracts. We should look at these areas and scale up our surveillance.”