*Squanders N284.354m in staff uniforms, members allowances
*Budgets 155m, 45m on consultancy, Audit fees in 2021.

*Reps orders Zero allocation for Agency in 2022 budget.

The Corporate Affairs Commis­sion (CAC), one of the revenue generating agencies of the Fed­eral Government, has operated in con­tradiction as a liability rather than generate income for gov­ernment since 2016, documents submitted to the House of Rep­resentatives have shown.

In four years, CAC spent N7.738 billion above its earn­ings, according to the docu­ments.

The revelation came to the fore at the recently concluded interactive sessions between the House Committee on Finance and government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), to gauge revenue projections ahead of the 2022–2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), and Fiscal Strategy Papers (FSP).

However, in the course of en­gaging with the CAC, series of documents tendered regarding budget performances in the last five years threw up more ques­tions than the management of the commission could answer.

Apart from 2020 when the commission made a surplus of N5.9 billion, a careful examina­tion of the documents present­ed to the House revealed that it has been spending far above its generated revenue since 2016, leaving the committee to won­der where the extra expended funds came from.

The records showed that the CAC spent over N2.483 bil­lion above its revenue in 2016, N1.239 billion in excess in 2017, N988 million in 2018, N1.083 bil­lion in 2019 and N1.945 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

The records also revealed that the CAC made a huge expenditure in both local and foreign travels between 2016 amounting to N434.451 million for local travels and N336.649 million for foreign travels, amid complaints from staff that training exercises and trips both local and foreign have not been forthcoming in last five years.

Some middle level and management staff contacted by Daily Independent denied making any official journey within the period under re­view, whilst noting that if such trips were undertaken, the beneficiaries must have done so secretly.

According to them, since the coming of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, local travels in the agency had become scarce, let alone foreign trips, just as they wondered how the said amount could have been spent on trips without them partaking in any.

A senior staff, who spoke under the plea of anonymity, urged the Parliament to “de­mand records of such trips in the form of flight tickets, hotel accommodation receipts, train­ing certificates, as well as state­ment of accounts bearing es­tacode payments and for what purpose and date of receipt.”

Even though the Registrar General, Mr. Garba Abubakar, told lawmakers that the com­mission has not made any new recruitment for the past three years, the document revealed that it spent about N2.9 mil­lion, N1.059 million and N1.574 million for “new staff orien­tation/certificate verification exercise in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.”

Another unverified claim by the commission’s management is the purchase of “staff uni­form” to the tune of over N220 million in an agency where cor­porate dressing is mandatory for employees.

Investigation by this news­paper revealed that only driv­ers, not up to 100 nationwide wear uniform in the commis­sion, as security guards who work at the commission are outsourced from private secu­rity firms.

However, the documents be­fore the House reveal that the agency spent N51.890 million for staff uniform in 2016, N52.054 million in 2017, N53.710 million in 2018, N570,750 in 2019, N9.783 million in 2020 and N52.050 in the first quarter of 2021.

Similarly, it spent N25.905 million and N6.393 million on what it described as com­mission members expenses and commission members allowances in 2020, with the documents revealing further that the CAC has already spent N20.833 million and N10.416 mil­lion as at the end of May, 2021 on the same subhead.

It was also observed that the commission budgeted a whop­ping N25 million as audit fees for the 2021 fiscal year and another N20 million for what it referred to as “QMS Audit expenses,” while it has already spent N17.2 million as audit fees as at the end of May 31, 2021 and another N6.6 million on QMS expenses.

It also planned to spend a whopping N155 million on consultancy in 2021 and as at the end of May, 2021, it has expended N32.2 million of the amount, while spending N142 million at the end of May on ease of doing business, out of a budget of N330 million.

However, the documents be­fore the House reveal that the agency spent N51.890 million for staff uniform in 2016, N52.054 million in 2017, N53.710 million in 2018, N570,750 in 2019, N9.783 million in 2020 and N52.050 in the first quarter of 2021.