Kemi Adeosun
In order to improve accountability, the Federal Ministry of Finance has disclosed that it has taken steps to strengthen and increase the capacity of the Post-Mortem sub-Committee of the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC. This was sequel to the approval at the last FAAC meeting that three independent and experienced financial analysts who will work on the process of reconciliation, be appointed.
The Ministry explained that the Post-Mortem Sub-Committee is to enhance accountability, improve reconciliations and ensure transparent process in respect of all the revenues accruable to the Federation Account. The sub-committee is saddled with the responsibility of examining the books of accounts of all revenue agencies including the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIIRS, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, and Ministry of Mines and Steel. It is expected to report deficiencies observed to the Federation Account Committee and recommend the way forward.
Though the un-reconciled differences are no longer there, with the increased oversight of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the transparency of the NNPC, it will be easy for the sub-committee to achieve better result. This is because the committee, which reports to the Federation Account on a monthly basis, was originally set up to encourage revenue reconciliation and block leakages through the use of technology.
The NNPC had rejected the findings of the audit report submitted recently to the National Assembly by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, stating that the audit query it raised over the non-remittance of N3.235 trillion to the Federation Account was erroneous. The corporation had insisted that its balance to the federation account is N326 billion.
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