From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The House of Representatives, blasted the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for remitting only N2, 636, 512, 707 billion out of the N7, 685, 947, 932 billion it generated between January 2021and July 2022.
FCCPC Executive Commissioner, Operations, Adamu Abdullahi, accompanied by Director of Finance and Administration of the Commission, Akinyoghon Ojo, told the House of Representatives Committee on Finance
that the balance was used for overhead cost.
Abdullahi, during a resumed hearing of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) from 2023 to 2025, yesterday in Abuja, said N4.024 billion was generated in 2021, while N3, 661, 947, 932. 51 billion was generated from January to July this year.
According to him, N1, 341, 196, 789 was remitted in 2021 and N1.295, 315, 918 has been remitted so far this year.
Explained that they spent the money because they were given approval by committees of the House that oversees the affairs of the Commission.
But the committee chaired James Faleke, queried the Commission over the balance of the money it generated, noting that no agency had the right to spend any money without appropriation.
Faleke said no committee of the House had the authority to approve any spending outside appropriation.
To this end, he directed the Clerk to write a letter that would be personally signed by him to the Minister of Finance that the DFA be removed from office.
He also directed that another letter be written to the Ministry that no more funds be released to the agency until Ojo was removed.
Faleke wondered why the agency would spend from its internally generated revenue when it already has a budget for overhead.
He said the agency which is fully funded by the government was supposed to pay 100 % of its IGR into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“If everybody spends their income how would the government fund the budget?” Faleke queried.
The DFA said they could not spend the money allocated to them from the treasury and had to dip their hands in the IGR.
He said for this reason, the Commission had applied for financial autonomy through the Minister of Trade and Investment.
But Faleke responded, saying “so because you have not been granted approval you decided to spend the government’s money.
“You presented the IGR budget, outside the national budget. Does that make sense?
“Nobody gave approval to the spending of the money. Government provides money for you and you are funded accordingly.
“The worst case scenario is by submitting an amendment or supplementary.
“No committee has power to approve IGR outside the national budget. It is every agency’s IGR collected to fund the national income.”
Meanwhile, Abdulahi said he did not know this and he was just learning about it, much to the chagrin of the lawmakers.
Faleke questioned why agencies have access to funds without the approval of the ministry.
“How can they spend money outside appropriation and you have control of the accounts? How do you release money to an agency that has already surpassed its appropriation,” he queried the representative of the Accountant General.
The lawmaker demanded that the said IGR budget approved by the said House committees be submitted.
He also directed that the balance of N513, 770, 959 million in the account of the Commission be blocked
The DFA informed the committee that the amount approved for the Commission for 2022 was N280 million but that they got a release of N166 million so far.
The deputy chairman of the Committee, Saidu Musa Abdullahi, said, “Because we do not have people checking on us we go haywire on spending.
“What we get is you create unnecessary expenditures around income you generate.
“It is even more unfortunate that you are a full agency and supposed to do 100 percent remittance.
“We are not prudent in the way we manage resources in this country. And something has to be done about some of these agencies.”
A member of the Committee, John Dyegh said, “Something  is seriously wrong. We are talking about borrowing over N11 trillion for 2023 and then somebody is talking about financial autonomy.
“You want to be given the right to spend what should go to CRF. This year alone you have made over N3 billion and spent over 2 billion for no good reason and you are insisting you want financial autonomy. Does it make sense to you?”
“They have to come back next week Monday and all your officers must appear. You must come with a new DFA,” Faleke directed.