Jonas Ezieke, Abuja
The House Representatives Committee on Finance on Wednesday requested that the National Board for Technical Education NABTEB remit to the federal government the outstanding N1.4 billion from the agency’s internally generated revenue of N1.5 billion in 2021.
The House Committee also requests that the agency immediately defer the N4.1 billion liabilities to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission FRC for a period of no more than three weeks.
During the, Deputy Chairman of the House Committee Hon.Abdullahi Seidu issued directives to the agency’s Regisrar Prof.Ifeoma Isiguzo Abanihe. Interrective session of the Committee with key government agencies and institutions on remittances of IGR to the government under the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
The House probe panel while scrutinizing the submission of the agency on the 2021 Budget under IGR remittances had uncovered that a whopping N1.4 billion out of the N1.5 billion generated by the office in 2021 was expended.
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The Committee helsman pointed out that by provisions of the FRC Act 2007, all revenue generating agencies of the federal government are supposed to remit their Internally Generated Revenue IGR 100% to the Consolidated Revenue Fund CRF of the federal government.
But the Regisrar of the agency who represented the Executive Secretary Prof Idris M.Bugaje said that it is impossible that the examination body could perform its statutory functions of conducting examination on technical skills to students without using its IGR for this operations.
She explained to the House Committee that the agency’s key mandate is to administer the skilled examination to students in all the nation’s technical school as a specialised area adding that this mandate captures only the technical schools which are very few.
On the sources of revenue to the agency, she explained to the lawmkers that the agency charges examination fee as its major source of revenue and added that other sources are tender fees on outsourcing of materials.
On the N4.1 billion revenue that was not remitted, she said that they expended it on the conduct of these examination and added that the agency has over fourty 40 offices and fifty 50 operational vehicles.
But the Committee Chairman said that agency should work harder by encouraging more technical schools to enrol and write the technical examinations
He added that the agency is given a deadline of September 30, 2022 to recover all its liabilities to the government or its the amount will be deducted from its operations accounts and paid to the government coffers.
Moreiver, the House Committee has challenged the Chief Executive Officers CEOs of the National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA, the Nigerian Postal Service NIPOST and the Nigeria Copyright Commission to submit their audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation on or before Friday September 11, 2022.
The Committee also called on the NITDA to do a tripatite reconciliation meeting of its accounts with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission FRC and the Office of th Accountant-General of the Federation on the N293.4 million revenue it said it generated and remitted to the CRF in the 2022 budget.
It also described as unacceptable the non-remittance of the 3.9 billion IGR by NIPOST in its presentation before the Committee saying that government is being starved of funds for its activities.
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The Post Master or the agency Mr Ismail Adewusi in a submission had blamed the unremitance to the high cost of diesel and other operational necessities not covered by the agency in its annual budgets.
Meanwhile, the Committee had also directed that the Director-General Nigeria Copyright Commission Dr John Asien to appear unfailingly before the panel on Monday September, 12, 2022 unfailingly at 11.00 am over irreconcilable figures on IGR.
