By George Mgbeleke<\/p>\n
Unhappy with the remittance of Osun-Ogun River Basin Development Authority,the Senate Committee on Public Accounts has warned that it may suspend budget releases and impose other sanctions on the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority over poor financial records and unremitted internally generated revenue, IGR.<\/p>\n
The committee issued a two-week ultimatum to the authority during an investigative hearing held Wednesday on remittances of IGR and operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, CRF, from 2023 to 2025.<\/p>\n
Chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, gave the directive after the Acting Managing Director, Mr Ayo Oyano, appeared before the panel on behalf of the MD who was reportedly on annual leave.<\/p>\n
Oyano told the committee that the authority generated N72.755 million in 2023 and remitted N18.188 million, representing 25 per cent of its IGR. He said revenue was also generated in 2024 and 2025, and that receipts for remittances were attached to submissions.<\/p>\n
But a representative of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission faulted the submission. The commission said the authority, as a fully funded agency, is required to remit 100 per cent of its revenue.<\/p>\n
It also disclosed that the authority last submitted audited accounts in 2022, and had defaulted for 2023, 2024 and 2025. According to the commission, the authority had an outstanding liability of N71.5 million as of 2022 with no remittance on record.<\/p>\n
Wadada reminded the agency that personnel, overhead and capital expenditures were already provided for in the national budget.<\/p>\n
“You are not expected to retain any revenue you generate because your budget has already been appropriated by the National Assembly,” he said.<\/p>\n
Oyano argued that some IGR was used to maintain tractors and other operational assets for farmers, and that the authority was not primarily a revenue-generating agency.<\/p>\n
The committee rejected the explanation. “If clients pay for your services, those funds belong to government and must go into the Consolidated Revenue Fund,” Wadada said.<\/p>\n
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission added that agencies can only retain revenue under exceptional circumstances and with proper approval.<\/p>\n
“No agency can spend internally generated revenue outside an approved budget without lawful authorisation,” it said.<\/p>\n
Dankwambo directed the authority to reconcile its records with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission within two weeks.<\/p>\n
“From the look of things, your books are not in order. We are giving you two weeks to reconcile your accounts,” he said.<\/p>\n
Addressing journalists after the hearing, Wadada said the investigation was part of the committee’s constitutional oversight duties.<\/p>\n
“Any agency collecting revenue and spending it without appropriation is acting illegally. Such practices will not be tolerated,” he said.<\/p>\n
He also decried the absence of several invited agencies and urged chief executives to appear personally when summoned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke Unhappy with the remittance of Osun-Ogun River Basin Development Authority,the Senate Committee on Public Accounts has warned that it may suspend budget releases and impose other sanctions on the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority over poor financial records and unremitted internally generated revenue, IGR. The committee issued a two-week ultimatum to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15588,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15587\/revisions\/15588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}