The Nigerian National Assembly has been urged to urgently review the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, as part of measures to ensure prudency and transparency in the management of public funds.
Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Mr. Victor Muruako, disclosed this while speaking to National Assembly Correspondents in commemoration of the 2021 Nigerian Open Government Partnership week.
Mr. Muruako decried that in spite of its efforts at seeing Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) remit the right percentage of their internally generated revenues into the consolidated fund of the federation, over 1.2 trillion naira is still being withheld by some MDAs.
He said reviewing the act would give the Commission enforcement capability, with a view to calling such erring MDAs to order, stressing that the lack of powers to sanction had remained one of the biggest challenges in the discharge of its mandate.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 is defective in many regards. When we noticed that some government agencies were taking advantage of loopholes in the Act, we started pushing for its amendment which is already at the Committee stage in the Senate. We hope that the amendment will scale through to enable us sanction those who go against the Act and help strengthen the economy.
The Commission fully appreciates the positive interest and avowed commitment of both Chambers of the National Assembly which enacted the Act in the first place, to its quick amendment.” Mr. Muruako.
Government-owned Enterprises and Corporations are, by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 expected to remit eighty percent of their Operating Surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government but many MDAs still persist in defaulting thereby depriving the government the funds to implement other budget.
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