Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance,on Wednesday, said the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency had not been remitting the revenues generated to the government’s coffers. According to Adeosun, 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.
Culled from Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment