The Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account, a dedicated account for the receipt of 80 per cent operating surplus of revenue generating ministries, departments and agencies of government netted N2.7 trillion in 2021 fiscal year. Credit of improved revenue remittance to CRF last year, first time in many years by revenue generating agencies of government, goes to surveillance and painstaking effort of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC).
Insider source at the Presidency, who confirmed the figure to New Telegraph in Abuja, described the figure as impressive compared to past figures. He recalled the experiences of the past when revenue generating agencies remitted pittance into CRF as operating surplus. Last year, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission accused about 32 government agencies of failing to remit their 80 per cent operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for 2020 operations, thereby hindering accurate determination of operating suron plus liabilities and diminishing accountability and transparency in handling government revenue.
FRC Chairman, Victor Muruako, who briefed National Assembly last year, had said at the time that over N1.2 trillion in revenue was withheld by the defaulting agencies, thus keeping money away from government’s reach for funding of its budget. He said the agencies failed to submit their audited account to the Commission to enable it calculate their operating surplus, which is supposed to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation. Updating this reporter on MDAs’ surplus revenue remittance to CRF, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to media on the matter, said: “It is an improved performance viewed against past records.”
This was as some states are said to have enlisted services of Fiscal Responsibility Commission to enact fiscal laws as a guide to their fiscal operations. Two states, Kaduna and Sokoto, are confirmed to have concluded arrangements to embark on a working tour to FRC office in Abuja in March this year. Benue State was said to have come on a similar mission to Abuja, headquarters of the Commission, last year. States that passed fiscal responsibility laws to date are Ebonyi, Taraba, Adamawa, Yobe, Anambra, Abia, Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Osun, Bayelsa, Enugu and Nasarawa, while Lagos State has a Finance Management Law with aspects of Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. Contacted on phone, spokesperson of FRC, Mr. Bede Anyanwu, confirmed that some states reached out to the Commission for the purpose of putting the states on path of fiscal responsibility legislation. States that are yet to pass fiscal responsibility law include Edo, Rivers, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Katsina, Borno, Plateau, Ogun, Oyo, Zamfara, Ondo and Benue. Fourteen states currently operate fiscal responsibility laws. Nine states operate the fiscal responsibility laws without the Commission, while 13 states have none.
culled from the New Telegragh