Twenty-eight Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Government failed to remit federally-collected revenue running into hundreds of billions to the public purse in the year 2014.

Top on the list are the Ministries of Petroleum Resources, Aviation, Police Affairs, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development and Information, Culture and Tourism. Also in the list are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Accountant General of the Federation, Office of the Head of Service, Code of Conduct Bureau, National Business and Technical Examination Board, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), among others.

The list of the 28 MDAs is contained in the 2014 report of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) released recently and awaiting official presentation to the National Assembly as required by law.

The law stipulates that revenue-generating organs of government must remit 80% of funds collected to the central purse and retain 20% for their operations. But this law has been observed more in the breach as most MDAs concerned either fail entirely to remit or make remittances at their own discretion in spite of the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).

This situation no doubt, has contributed to the parlous state of the nation’s economy which is now officially in recession, going by the report of the NBS released earlier this week.

“A careful analysis of the revenue returns received during the year revealed that most MDAs continued to default in the prompt remittance of the Internally Generated Revenue to the treasury,” the FRC stated in the report, adding in a tone of helpless lamentation that “despite several letters, reminders and occasional visits, quite a number of MDAs are still lackadaisical in submitting Quarterly Revenue Returns.”

The FRC report which offered comparison with compliance in 2013, said “out of 48 MDAs monitored in 2014, only 14 or 29.16% submitted returns for the entire year as against the 22 or 45.83% in 2013. The number of MDAs with no submission rose to 28 or 58.34% compared with 18 or 37.50%.”

The report also revealed that revenues remitted by MDAs had dropped in 2014 compared to the situation the previous year. It stated: “A total of N7,666,979,382.80 independent revenue was monitored as remitted to the treasury by 20 MDAs in 2014 while the sum of N7,773,150,990.94 was remitted in 2013 by 30 MDAs.

“It is instructive to note that while the total remittances dropped by about 1.38% in 2014, the actual number of MDAs that made remittances also reduced by about a third from 30 in 2013 to 20 in 2014.”

The other defaulting MDAs listed in the report are: Ministries of Communication, Education, Science and Technology, Transport, Federal Civil Service Commission, National Planning Commission, Public Complaints Commission, National Population Commission, Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, and Nigerian Press Council.

Others are Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Nigerian Copyright Commission, Consumer Protection Council and Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation.ORDERPAPER