Yemisi Izuora
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has alleged that
15 revenue generating agencies of the federal government failed to
remit N8.1 trillion to the Federation Account between 2010 and 2015.
The Minister made the disclosure in Osogbo, Osun State, on Monday
while commissioning the Channelization, De-silting, Flood Control and
Development of Okoko and Ogbagba Rivers, phases one and two, on behalf
of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the discovery by the auditing firm KPMG is many times worse
than the N1.34 trillion carted away by 55 public officials between
2006 and 2013.
“Recently, the Federal Government ordered an audit (between 2010 and
2015) of 15 government revenue generating
agencies. The result was the discovery that the agencies had not
remitted over 8.1 trillion Naira to the Federation Account. This
amount is about six times the 1.34 trillion Naira that was stolen
between 2006 and 2015.
”It is also the equivalent, on the average, of the country’s yearly
national budget! Imagine, for a moment, how many kilometres of roads
could have been constructed, how many kilometres of rail tracks that
could have been laid, and how many modern hospitals and schools that
could have been built if that money had been properly accounted for,”
Alhaji Mohammed said.
He told the mammoth crowd at the commissioning that the Buhari
Administration’s fight against corruption remains very
critical because it will free the much-needed resources for national
development.
The Minister said the projects being executed by the present
administration, including the one that was commissioned in Osogbo –
one of 53 being commissioned across the country – could have long been
completed but for the mind-boggling looting of the treasury by
previous administrations, which deprived the nation of infrastructural
growth
He said that every kobo that is not looted is a plus for development,
adding: ”This is why we will not stop talking about those who have
looted the public treasury, despite the pushback from their
apologists. If we do not stop the looting of the treasury, there will
be no money for the kind of projects we are commissioning here in
Osogbo today.”
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun corroborated the
Minister’s disclosure that 8.1 trillion Naira was unaccounted for by
15 revenue generating agencies, saying the share of his state from the
said amount is 75 billion Naira which, he said, would have been more
than enough to pay all civil servants their salaries and complete all
infrastructural projects of the government.
Speaking on the commissioned project, the Minister said this is the
first time the Ecological Fund Office is ever commissioning any
project and handing it over to the host community.
He said the triple project, which was one of the twelve 4th Quarter,
2016 ecological intervention projects across the six geo-political
zones approved by the President in October 2016, was due to the
perennial flooding which had claimed lives and destroyed property in
Osogbo Township.
”I have no doubt in my mind that the successful completion of these
projects would enhance the holistic solutions to soil erosion and
flood menace in Osogbo Town. This would at the same time reduce the
danger to lives and property associated with erosion and persistent
flooding that has been experienced here in the recent time,” Alhaji
Mohammed said.