THE Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris said his office was carrying out a forensic audit of Federal Government’s agencies to ascertain the true state of revenue generation.
This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen yesterday, in Abuja, by the Director of Press in the AGF’s office, Mrs Kenechukwu Offie.
According to the statement, Idris engaged the services of 18 professional audit companies to undertake Process Audit of federal parastatals and agencies.
He said the audit process would cover 2010 to 2015 and would be completed in 18 months.
The AGF said the audit would also cover capital, personnel and overhead expenditure across all federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
He said this would enable the Federal Government take better decisions, in view of the dwindling revenue inflow. Idris said the first phase of the assignment was divided into two categories and would involve 33 Agencies.
“Category A comprises eight agencies with a turnover of above N100 billion and category B involves 25 agencies with a turnover of below N100 billion.”
The AGF said some of the terms of reference given to the consultants was to review sources of revenue accruing to the organisations and the effectiveness of revenue generation and accounting.
“Undertake a critical review of the financial statements of the organisations over the last five years, confirm the sources and quantum of funding received from government, whether loans, subventions or grants and reconcile with treasury records.
“Study in detail, enabling laws establishing the organisations with a view to identifying possible constraints and areas of improvement.
“Determine the amount of remittances made to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) over the last five years in the form of operating surplus and revenue dividends.
“Determine the extent of compliance with extant regulations regarding the adequacy and regularity of remittances to the CRF.
“Identify all income and interest thereon and make adequate recommendations on the future management of the organisations,” he said.
Ahmed said the consultants would establish cost of operations and make appropriate recommendations to understand real personnel cost and cost associated with revenue collection or revenue sharing arrangement.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled how the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) accused federal revenue generating agencies of short-changing government.
Acting Chairman, Mr Victor Muruako said many agencies under-declare their revenue and fail to remit 80 per cent of their operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The FRC insisted on getting the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to open up on revenue generation with success.