...probe unremitted operating surplus, questions use of statutory funds belonging to UBEC, NASENI and others
By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to provide a comprehensive account of unremitted operating surplus allegedly owed to the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other revenue-generating agencies. 
The committee also demanded explanations over allegations that the OAGF withdrew billions of naira from the accounts of several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), to finance government obligations.
The directives were issued on Monday when the Accountant General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Babatunde Ogunjimi, appeared before the committee during an investigative hearing at the National Assembly.
Raising concerns during the session, committee member Rep. Gboyega Nasir Isiaka said poor remittance of government revenues remained one of Nigeria’s major fiscal challenges.
“I mean, considering our GDP, you know, ours is one of the lowest on the continent, at about 16 per cent. Now, I know that business entities are meant to return about 80 per cent of their taxes, and others are between 20 per cent and 50 per cent.
“From the totality of what we are seeing, there appears to still be some backlog of remittances. Can you give some instances or some figures around this? That is one. Two, even those business entities that are returning, as a member of the economic team, how comfortable are you with the performance of some of those entities given their assets and all of that?
“Like CBN, SEC, NIMASA and some of those. Because it’s not just enough for us to say 80 per cent of their surpluses. What exactly is the surplus they are giving us? These are the asset base that they have in their hand. So I think it’s important for us to have a look at that, in addition to some of the revenues that they are meant to have paid but have not paid for,” Isiaka said.
In response, the Director of Revenue and Investment at the OAGF, Makinde Mogaji, disclosed that the CBN had yet to remit an alleged N5.3 trillion operating surplus to the Federal Government despite repeated recovery efforts.
“Early last year, they were owing the Federal Government N5.3 trillion for their operating surplus and despite all the effort of the PAC, N5.3 trillion CBN, and despite the effort of the PAC to recover the money, they refused to pay. 70 per cent of that money should be paid and behold, CBN refused to pay. That is CBN. And that is just one of our huge sources of revenue. Agency like FAAN, we have record of ₦473 billion paid,” Mogaji said.
On allegations that the OAGF had been making automatic deductions from the accounts of MDAs, the Accountant General defended the practice, describing it as a mechanism designed to enable government meet pressing financial obligations.
He added that some agencies later sought presidential intervention to reverse the deductions.
“That was an ingenious way of taking in advance what is due to government last year, and that was how we were able to rake in a lot of revenue last year.
“Let me add to that. Because when we initiated that move and were able to rake in a lot of revenue, some of these agencies went behind to seek a reversal. So, we’ve been battling with that issue because some went back to Mr President and said that was too much this and that. Some got total cancellation. Some got reduced advance.
“So we have been battling with that and that’s why we were not able to return like what we had last year to that level. And you have instances also where agencies like NNPC refused totally to cooperate… to the extent that they had to be walked out because of their non-compliance and cooperation. NNPC has agreed to some of those liabilities, some they said no they do not agree, so all of that is still being handled by a post-mortem committee,” Ogunjimi said.
Providing further clarification, Mogaji said the automatic deduction mechanism was intended to recover operating surplus in advance, subject to reconciliation.
“Yes, the auto deduction that was established last year has been working perfectly. Like AGF said, the auto deduction is an advance way. It’s a mechanism designed to pick the operating surplus in advance from these agencies, and at the end of the day, they will compute OPS and see whether they have excess or they have been over-deducted. We have some figures here, but they can’t be taken to be the final lists”, he added.
Committee Chairman, Rep. Bamidele Salam, however, questioned the legality of withdrawing statutory allocations from agencies established to perform specific national responsibilities.
He cited complaints received from UBEC and several other government institutions.
“There is an ongoing investigation involving UBEC and other agencies. And in the course of the investigation, the UBEC claimed that, for example, there was a shortfall. There was an authority to incur expenditure of November 2025 which was not released by the Accountant General, ₦16 billion from the Commission’s account. Another ₦15 billion from the Commission’s account which has not been refunded.
“And we actually wondered why these deductions from statutory payments of some of these very critical institutions of government. Not only UBEC. We had the same thing with NASENI. NASENI, was it ₦70 billion or more than that? We have different agencies and they complained. So, what is the justification, Accountant General?” Salam asked.
In response, Ogunjimi maintained that the withdrawals were temporary and carried out only after assessing whether the affected funds had remained idle.
“We have instances where, at a point in time, we have the need to take monies from some of these agencies to be able to meet critical financial obligations of government. Yes, it’s like a borrow, a loan. We are going to refund it and we have been refunding for those agencies. It’s just to meet those critical obligations.
“Sir, first and foremost, Accountant General cannot just sit and begin to pick money from accounts of these agencies. We first analyse, because the directives come from the Honourable Minister. We first analyse how long these funds have remained in the account unutilised. So, if you have this money like six months and government needs funding.
“So we say, let’s take it and then we refund your money when you need it. Like TETFund for instance, we took over ₦300 billion and we have refunded the whole to them. So, if you come back and tell us that we need this money now, can you give us that money, then we process and give it back to them”, he said.
The explanation failed to convince the committee chairman, who insisted that the deductions had undermined the statutory responsibilities of several agencies.
“So, which ones have you refunded? UBEC is crying, NASENI is crying, NBC too is crying. We have quite a number of them. We have more than six that are under various investigations here and that is their major claim, that they don’t know how to approach this matter. The Accountant General just gets into their accounts so they cannot have the money to use for the primary purpose they were meant for.
“Like the one in UBEC, you will agree with me that the problem we have today, including banditry and what have you, is also as a result of our neglect of basic education, especially in the northern part of the country. We have about 13.5 million out-of-school children. UBEC is to construct schools, provide infrastructure and instructional materials. They can’t do that because the fund that is statutorily meant for them is being taken for other purposes,” Salam said.
The committee directed the OAGF to furnish it with detailed records of outstanding operating surplus owed by government agencies, as well as evidence of deductions and refunds made to affected MDAs, as the investigation continues.
