January 7, 2016

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday, said the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency had not been remitting the revenues generated to the government’s coffers.

The immediate past Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolkemi, is currently facing 40 counts of fraud and money laundering to the tune of N34.5bn.

Adeosun specifically stated that in some instances, NIMASA collected revenue in dollars but paid naira into the government’s account.



The minister said this while addressing journalists after the first Federal Executive Council meeting of the year inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She explained that the requirement was that such money should go to the Central Bank of Nigeria which would convert the money to naira.

Adeosun said while the government had stopped NIMASA from doing so, an audit was being carried out to identify other agencies.

This, she explained, was why the government was doing a full audit of all those accounts and to ensure that all those revenues were converted in accordance with the extant procedures and guidelines.

The minister added that it was also discovered that some of the agencies spent government money without control.

When asked what would be the fate of the heads of the MDAs under whose purview government funds were diverted in the past, the minister said she would not want to pre-empt the outcome of an audit that would be commissioned by the government.

She, however, said that in a situation where it is clear that financial procedures had been breached, there was a process for dealing with the culprits.

Adeosun said, “The principal discussion in our meeting today was the initiative by this administration to plug revenue leakages in our MDAs that generate revenue. The presentation to FEC was to remind ministers who supervise these revenue-generating boards of their responsibilities under the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

“Let me remind you that under the FRA, these boards and corporations who generate revenue are supposed to generate and operate surplus, 80 per cent of which is to be credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“But we have discovered that many agencies have never credited anything and never generated any operating surplus including some whose salaries, overheads and capital are paid by the Federal Government.

“In addition to that, they generate revenue which they spend without any form of control.”

Adeosun said one of the initiatives adopted by the government was the directive to all the agencies that they must all submit a budget that must be subject to approval and they must operate within that budget so that the surplus that is meant to come to the Federal Government could be seen to be used appropriately.

Adeosun ruled out the possibility of any ministry inflating its budget when there was no revenue

She said, “There can be no inflation of budget when revenues are so thin and one of the things that I think that the budgeting process is doing is pruning down unnecessary expenditure.

“Let me also mention that we have set up the efficiency unit that is going to look into how we spend money and look at how we make savings because the money just isn’t there.”

Adeosun said the Federal Government had discovered that many revenue-generating agencies had not been remitting the revenues generated to the government’s coffers.

She explained that these are revenues of government in non-oil economies but the government had not been looking in the direction of the MDAs in the past because the country had a lot of oil money

She disclosed that a circular had been issued to the agencies in their hundreds in December 2015 requesting that they send their budgets.

“What we discussed today (Wednesday) was the responsibility of the ministers to ensure that whether those agencies have boards or not, those budgets are prepared and that the Ministry of Finance is going to sit down with the supervising ministers and the boards concerned where necessary, to go through their budgets and make sure that they are reasonable and that the costs are not inflated.

“We also discussed that in some cases, because some agencies have a track record and history of making sure that every naira they earned was spent, we will go in and audit agencies under Section 107 ( 8 ) of the Financial Regulations.

“The Accountant-General, who is under the Ministry of Finance, has the power to go in and make inquiries about how public money is spent, so we will be sending in auditors to some agencies where we believe their cost is simply excessive and not in tandem with our expectations.

“The expected outcome of this is that the Internally Generated Revenue which the new budget is banking on will actually become a reality. So, that was the principal discussion and everybody in the cabinet endorsed the initiative.”


http://www.punchng.com/nimasa-collected-revenue-dollars-remitted-naira-fg/

The story keeps getting messier

Maybe they operate bureau de change as annex or their subsidiary.

Same old recycled rhethorics ..

..Maybe, they calculated with N1 = $1 ..

I don't blame them ..

Black market runs!

It is pretty clear by now to all and sundry that GEJ ran an 'anything goes' system of government, devoid of any iota of accountability.

...& this is Season what now, i've lost count

Please Kemi, beam your torchlight on Apapa...that place is a mess! Then head to airports, Road Safety (who know if those ones accounts na private people get am?), FERMA, in fact #ProbeEverywhere


#YeyeDeSmellEverywhereYouGo

What we discussed today (Wednesday) was the responsibility of the ministers to ensure that whether those agencies have boards or not, those budgets are prepared and that the Ministry of Finance is going to sit down with the supervising ministers and the boards concerned where necessary, to go through their budgets and make sure that they are reasonable and that the costs are not inflated.

“We also discussed that in some cases, because some agencies have a track record and history of making sure that every naira they earned was spent, we will go in and audit agencies under Section 107 (cool of the Financial Regulations.

The boldened part is a good step in the right direction.

Scrutinize the budget of the various ministries and board to check excesses and remove the irrelevance in them, make sure they account for any penny spent and regulate their finances.
Tell me how money will be stolen in millions.

I have the believe Madam Kemi is going to perform excellently. Not having World Bank experience is nothing!

NIMASA doing forex since 1520 AD

Meanwhile the process of government agencies earning monies and spending them and giving government change will have to stop. All government monies have to be paid to the Federation Account and a budget submitted for their operations.

With this measure all the illicit conduits with which both civil servants and politicians exploit to loot will be block.

[size=18] ... I see a brighter light at the end of the tunnel!

GOD BLESS NIGERIA [/size]

this is seriously serious
BTW, this government will set a standard for subsequent administration in Nigeria. Jonathan administration was no standard. a sorry case administration

AngryNigerian:
...& this is Season what now, i've lost count

Please Kemi, beam your torchlight on Apapa...that place is a mess! Then head to airports, Road Safety (who know if those ones accounts na private people get am?), FERMA, in fact #ProbeEverywhere


#YeyeDeSmellEverywhereYouGo

GEJ got 12 million votes. There are at least 12 million Nigerians who wanted GEJ to remain PRESIDENT. He would have won the election, and lost the country.
These crooks would still be weclome visitors at Aso Rock, increase in BH attacks would have been blamed on APC, economic failure would have also been labelled as sabotage.

Buhari isn't the best. But I think in the interest of the nation, we made a right choice.

musKeeto:

GEJ got 12 million votes. There are at least 12 million Nigerians who wanted GEJ to remain PRESIDENT. He would have won the election, and lost the country.
These crooks would still be weclome visitors at Aso Rock, increase in BH attacks would have been blamed on APC, economic failure would have also been labelled as sabotage.

Buhari isn't the best. But I think in the interest of the nation, we made a right choice.

You damn right.

musKeeto:

GEJ got 12 million votes. There are at least 12 million Nigerians who wanted GEJ to remain PRESIDENT. He would have won the election, and lost the country.
These crooks would still be weclome visitors at Aso Rock, increase in BH attacks would have been blamed on APC, economic failure would have also been labelled as sabotage.

Buhari isn't the best. But I think in the interest of the nation, we made a right choice.

And 11million out of the 12million are biafrans - useless people.

With all these reports, we should no expect PMB to move this country at a speed of light. There is no way Baba won't be slow with the processes in order to investigate and right some wrongs. Patience and cooperation is more needed by all.

My wifey had long been complainiig about non oil revenues in the country, as in how the government accounted for them.Majority are not remitted to CBN..Kudos should be given to the minister of fimance, I know she would make a great impact on the economy in time like this, being a chartered accountant.This was she revolutionalised ogun states IGR

God bless PMB
God bless kemi Adeosun
God bless Nigeria

who knows at what exchange rate?
every looter must vomit his own share!!!

What exactly was the former finance/coordinating minister of the country "coordinating"? With all these revelations its obvious that that woman was not ontop of anything. How can NIMASA be running as a bureau de change Okonjo didn't do anything about it?

First it was Dasuki collecting money from CBN and misappropriating it without the coordinating minister of the economy's knowledge or intervention. Now it's a government agency whose function is purely maritime related is now operating as a bureau de change. And some people will still tell me that Okonjo-Iwaela was ontop of her game.

"Transformation"! The greatest scam ever!!

Where is lalasticlala sef?

You see PDP really destroyed this Nigeria. In fact, they vandalised the treasury.

Imagine all these revelations coming from d desk of an acclaimed world bank staff.....

If they bring up iweala for trial now, the south eastern wont allow them to do proper job, crying witch hunting.

As for me, I support long jail term for those that plunged this nation into poverty including that usless Jonathan who couldn't curb his wife activities.

See moneys flying everywhere, i'm beginning to think it's only right to redirect funds, cos these people are supposed to be our role models yet steal widout conscience...God bless help Nigeria!

at what exchange rate!?

I didn't see NIMASSA though

Reply

Kettle calling the pot black.

seriously serious criminals
pdp raped this country from all her openings. if not for God...

and they will call this business and transparency

The word "remitted" reminds me of REMITTA's N25B. any update on that?