The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has bemoaned the attitude of government health institutions in the country in the area of revenue remittances to government coffers.
This is contained in a speech delivered by the Chairman, Victor Muruako Esq, at a Stakeholders Engagement to Analyse Nigeria’s Health Sector’s 2022 Budget, its Implementation and Monitoring held on JULY 15TH in Abuja.
The event under the theme ‘Ensuring Prudence and Accountability in Budget Implementation and Monitoring,’ was organized by the Federal Ministry of Health.
Muruako said so far the Commission has scrutinized the Audited Accounts of over 50 health institutions under the Federal Ministry of Health, where it found that almost all of these institutions have been under remitting their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) into the Government coffers.
The Chairman revealed that the recent finance circular of December 2021 has delineated what and how MDAs should remit to the Government based on whether they are fully funded, partially funded, or self-funded.
“Most of the Institutions under the Federal Ministry of Health are fully funded and it is expected that Internally Generated Revenue is remitted 100% to Government. This has not been the case.”
“It is observed, however, that most of these institutions do not receive 100% allocation as found in their approved budgets and so often the institutions run overheads and other programs from their IGR. As much as this is a wrong practice, the FRC is realistic in its computation of liabilities and usually takes into cognizance the associated costs of running any underfunded programs as long as they have been initially captured in the institution’s approved budget,” he said.
According to him, the FRC monitors revenue generation in this manner to ensure that what belongs to Government is received to fund the budget.
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission is established by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, of 2007 to promote prudent and transparent fiscal management in Nigeria. And as empowered by the Act, the Commission currently monitors 63 Scheduled Corporations in ensuring remittances of Operating Surplus by these corporations and other MDAs.