The Senate yesterday urged the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lamido Yuguda to remit N300million into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account of the Federal Government on before Thursday next week.
The upper chamber also directed the Auditor-General of the Federation to conduct a status enquiry on the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The Chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning, Senator Solomon Adeola, gave these directives when the two agencies appeared before the panel during its ongoing stakeholders’ interactive session on the 2021-2023 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), in Abuja.
Adeola said: “I will implore the DG of SEC to between today and Thursday next week remit at least N300million to the coffers of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“The DG said SEC generated a total revenue of N8.358billion in 2019 while it is expecting only N5.478billion and projecting N8.3billion in 2021.
“SEC should not pay less than N1billion to the CRF account in 2021. SEC, you have a staff strength of 600 and a wage bill of N10.3billion annually, amounting to N15.7million per person annually. You are indeed, top heavy. You have to work on this.”
Senator Gabriel Suswam noted said SEC is projecting a total revenue of N8.3billion in 2021.
He said: “Your expenditure is N14.4billion which means you have a deficit of N6.1billion. You said you are top heavy.
“Now there are lots of young men who are on the street who are qualified and ready to work.
“The salary of just one person from the top heavy management staff that you have can pay five young people who have the qualification and capacity to do the job.
“When you do that instead of generating N8billion and incurring deficit of N6.1billion, it is as good as your organisation does not exist.”
In his response, Yuguda noted that reducing the top heavy workforce in SEC would mean that the severance package of those to be laid off has to be paid.
On the NSCDC, Senator Ayo Akinyelure noted that every agency of government must make contributions to the CRF especially at this period that the Federal Government needs money to fund its budget.
He called on the NSCDC to review its fees and levies being paid by private guard 100 per cent upward because the nation needs money to fund its budget.
“As far as we are concerned, the Accountant General has confirmed that the NSCDC does not have access to what they are collecting but that it goes straight to the TSA (Treasury Single Account),” he said.
The co-Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, asked the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Abdullahi Gana Mohammadu, to account for revenue it often realize from executive guard services rendered by its operatives.
He also wanted to know what happened to items confiscated by the paramilitary outfit during its operations.
In his response, the CG said only allowances were paid to operatives where thesuch services are being rendered.
He also said confiscated items were usually auctioned after being valued by the Ministry of Works.
Adeola however called on the Auditor-General of the Federation to conduct a status enquiry on the NSCDC “because we need to know the true position of things.”
He added: “You (CG of NSCDC) will need to appear again before the panel next week and we would mandate the Auditor General of the Federation to carry out a status enquiry on the activities of the NSCDC as far as revenue is concered.”
On his part, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, noted that there are differences between money which acrued to an agency and an incidental money that will come to it from time to time.
“We need to find out into which account the NCDC remit revenues for confiscated items to; revenue from confiscated items were not given to the NSCDC as a target,” Idris said.
