House Moves to Amend Fiscal Responsibility Act

Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance Wednesday said it would soon commence a comprehensive amendment to the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.

As part of the proposed amendment, the Committee resolved to expand the current schedule of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to include all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government operating in the country.

The Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, disclosed that the expansion of the schedule was meant to ensure that all the MDAs that generate one form of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) or the other were captured and such revenues remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
In specific terms, the Committee decided to amend Section 22 of the Act to put the various MDAs in different categorisations for the purpose of revenue remittance. The first category would include agencies expected to remit 100 per cent of their IGR, and the second category would remit 25 per cent of their gross IGR.

Similarly, the third category would be expected to remit 80 per cent of operating surplus while the fourth group includes agencies with special cases that would be required to remit dividends, Public Private Partnership (PPP) proceeds and others, as may be determined by the Ministry of Finance in conjunction with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.

Jibrin explained that the Committee plans to list under each categorisation, all federal government’s MDAs to avoid ambiguity in the exercise.

He said all MDAs would be expected to disclose to the Committee all partnerships they may have with the private or public sector and indicate their respective business arrangements such as equity, debt or management contract.

“Failure of any MDA, MDA joint venture or MDA partly owned enterprise to be captured in this exercise will be deemed to be a deliberate act of suppressing government revenue. Civil society and the general public are invited and encouraged to forward to the committee any information in respect of the internal revenue generation in any agency,” Jibrin said.
- Thisday