House of Representatives Committee on Finance yesterday expressed disappointment in the office of Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF) over its inability to provide evidence of 25 per cent of the N6 billion internally revenue generated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2020.
The panel while meeting with SEC Director General, Mr Lamido Yuguda on the review of the 2020 to 2022 budget defence and 2023-2025 Medium-term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Policy Paper (FPP) from 2023 to 2025 had wanted the AGF to confirm the figures to no avail.
Specifically, the chairman of the committee, Hon. James Faleke had requested the AGF to give a proof of N738 million remittance.
He said “Where is it in your own record? I want to see your own record, not their own record. If you are referring me to their record, then you are not supposed to be here.
“Accountant general, honestly, are you happy with your job, are you satisfied that you are doing the right thing and you are presenting the necessary information to Nigerians through this Committee?
“It’s rather unfortunate honestly. At least I can see the laptop in front of my brother, it’s no longer manual.”
In their reaction, the AGF office said: “We have their record but not here but the receipts are issued by us. So we can confirm it. Because they are not part of the schedule we are supposed to have today. We are happy to be part of the Committee.”
Also speaking, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi said: “oAGF you’re supposed to know, this was actually in the news and you’ve been part of us since we started this session. If you look at our newspaper advert, you will see that SEC is actually supposed to appear today, so you are supposed to know.”
Speaking on the 25 percent remittance of the N6 billion revenue generated in 2020, Yuguda said it was from the source, adding that the commission made an operating surplus in its operation.
“We are expected to remit 25 percent of our revenues at source, that’s where we receive them and then another 15 percent of our revenue at the end of our financial year, when we are auditing financial statement”, he said.
Giving the details of the N6 billion revenue accrued to the Commission in 2020, Yuguda said: “page one we have our audited financial statement. Pages 3 to 19 we have a schedule that shows all the remittances that we have made for the 12 months in 2021 and then for the six months in 2022 from January…”
Faleke had inquired to know about the remittances.
“Where is the remittance? No, don’t rush us. N6 billion income where is the 25 per cent, tell me where it is, 25 per cent of the N6 billion?” He asked.
In his response, the SEC director said I was “It’s 1.588 billion Sir on page 3. 2021 is 1,367,361,909.56. It’s on the last page, honourable chairman. That is the MTEF document from 2017 to 2025 and we have a figure at the very bottom, second to the last of 738,258,000, that’s 2020 column number 5.
“Actually, it would be at the beginning of the year. We have market transaction charges on the capital market. And we have registration of securities. We have registration of operators and then we have penalties. When they file their accounts, however, reversed himself, saying; they do it at the end of the financial year.
“If you look at our income, these are transaction charges. So, when the market is actually more buoyant when there are more transactions on the market and that is when you actually get those transaction charges and for penalties, it’s when those penalties are accessed and paid by different operators. Registration of securities is when those securities are actually issued and there is no time frame.”
Speaking on the attempt to reposition the Commission, Yuguda said “last year and year before the last, which was a particularly difficult time for the commission. We came at a time when the commission was really running a deficit and we promised you at that time that we are going to take certain actions to really make this deficit a thing of the past.
“I think our story this year, is that we have actually turned a corner. If you look at our 2021 and 2020 compared to 2022, the budget and the actual for the six months in 2022 you’ll see that there is actually a tremendous improvement in the way we manage the financials of the commission.”
He added that the Commission’s budget “projected deficit of N1.6 billion but as at the end of the first half we actually had a surplus of N2.5.”
