₦airaland Forum

As President Muhammadu Buhari settles down to work, the Presidency has called for the Bank Account Balances of all federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.

The directive to all Chief Executive Officers and Accounting Officers of MDAs was contained in a circular Ref No: TRY A4 & B4/2015 /OAGF/CAD/026/V .1/254 and dated 1 June, 2015.

It was issued by former Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, before he retired from service, last week.

The circular was titled “Urgent Request for Account Balances of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, in the Central Bank and Deposit Banks, as at May 29, 2015”.

According to the circular, all accounts of each MDA, including accounts held in foreign banks must be included. Accounts of the nation’s Diplomatic Missions were also affected.

It contained a subtle warning that there would be consequences for any officer who failed to disclose any account or distort information on any account such as doctoring it as it would be considered illegal by the presidency.

It said in part, “To enable the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) properly brief the new Administration, you are hereby requested to submit urgently, the list and balances of ALL accounts maintained and operated by your Ministry, Department or Agency (MDA) in CBN and DMBs as at 29th May, 2015 .

Such accounts should include Offshore, Investment and Deposit Accounts.”
The MDAs were directed to provide the information in both hard and soft copies.

According to the directive, the information to be provided included: the Account Name, Account Number, Balance as at May 29, 2015, Account Status ( Active or Dormant) and remarks which should include signatories to the each account.

The move considered strategic to harnessing all available cash in an economy faced with dwindling revenue, especially from its primary source, oil, was one of the earliest steps of the new administration towards blocking all avenues of leakage.

Sources said that the submission of all bank accounts of MDAs would be the first step into President Buhari administrations audit of the federal governments financial management, especially by the last administration which had been accused of some huge payments to contractors and consultants in its last months.

It was also learnt that the Buhari administration would put in place stiff financial regulations which would make it difficult for MDAs, especially, extra-ministerial departments and agencies that collect funds from the public in their service delivery to spend such money at will.

The current regulation, allows government organizations which are not categorized as “Revenue Agencies” to spend what they earn and return the balance to the treasury at the end of each fiscal year.

However, Finance Ministry sources said that only few agencies adhere to that regulation, as most of them try to exhaust their funds at the end of the year or return what they like to the treasury, as “unspent fund”, while keeping the balance in their accounts.

ABUJA – DEPUTY Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Lasun Yussuf, yesterday said that there will be no amount of pressure that would make him resign his position as the Deputy Speaker.

Fielding question from journalists in Abuja yesterday, on the alleged pressure on him to step down from his position by some All Progressives Congress, APC, Chieftains, following the controversy trailing the election of the presiding officers of the 8th assembly, Hon. Yussuf said his election followed due process, hence, there was no way he would ever contemplate to resign.

Some of the APC Chieftains it was gathered had wanted him to step down for Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the choice of the party who had lost the Speakership seat to Hon. Dogara for the Deputy position.

Describing the alleged pressure to resign as speculations, he said, “why will I resign, I went through an election.”
He also explained that the speculation that the National Assembly takes a good chunk of the national budget, was unfounded, noting that out of the previous budgetary allocation of N150 billion, only N120 billion was budgeted in the 2015 appropriation.

Besides, he said that from the budget, the aides of the Senators and House of Representatives members, technocrats and their staff as well as the staff of the National Assembly Commission are paid.

He said, “when you talk about salary, it has to be tied to something. Let me tell you this, for the last three years with the exception of 2015, the budget of the national Assembly has been N150 billion and that is exactly 2.67 percent of the total budget of the federation.

“So, I don’t know where people see this to say it is 25 percent of the budget of the National Assembly. The budget of the National Assembly is 2.6 percent of the entire budget of the country and so it is not overblown.

“And people have forgotten too that there are 469 members of the National Assembly with each of the member with five aides that would be paid from the N150 billion.

“We have the National Assembly technocrats and their staffers and the National Assembly commission – all of them earn their salaries and allowances from these N150 billion.

“So, when people talk they always think that it is the House of Representatives members and senators that collect the N150 billion. And again don’t forget that for 2015 budget, the money has been reduced to N120 billion.

“So, when you do the calculation, that is why the Dogara speakership in the last one week has repeatedly said, he is going to do a needs assessment, that he is going to engage development partners to actually sit down and see what it takes for the national Assembly to be run as an arm of government.

“And you might be surprised that we have reasons for doing that because we can compare with other legislative bodies all over the world but it is not going to come from us, it is going to come from the body that would sit on the issue.”

dfak:
Is devil not tired of being devil?

barcanista:
He's more of a celebrity President. He's more prominent for his photo shots than leadership. This is not part of the Change agreement dear President Buhari

JOACHINpedro:
Dig bick

eightsin:
Lol. This funny. When boko haram did not use any certificate to learn their own shooting.