By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
The Acting Chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Barrister Victor Muruako has tasked the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) on the need to comply with remittance of operating surplus as stipulated by Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.
He noted that FHA has not been submitting its annual audited account, receipts of remittances, budgets, Medium Term Expenditure Framework, (MTEF) and operational strategic plan thereby hampering prompt and accurate determination of operating surplus liabilities.
The Acting Chairman stated this at the Stakeholders meeting with the management of the FHA at the Commission’s Headquarters, in Asokoro, Abuja.
According to a statement by Bede Nwanyanwu, FRC acting head of strategic communication on Wednesday, Muruako pointed out that FHA has not been complying fully with the provisions of section 21, 22 and 23 of Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 in the face of government’s dwindling resources.
While appreciating the representatives of the agency for their presence, he implored them to update their Chief Executive about the Commission’s readiness to offer them training on the recently launched template on the calculation of Operating Surplus to improve compliance.
In his remarks, the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation of FRC, Alhaji Ola Tijani urged the FHA to show proof of prudence, accountability and transparency in financial reporting in order to be in line with the FRA 2007.
According to him, compliance entails that agencies prepare and publish their audited financial statements not later than 90 days after the end of each financial year and Operating Surplus thereafter determined in line with the published Annual Financial Statement.
He noted that without Audited Financial Statement, there is no way the Commission can determine appropriate liabilities.
“There is therefore the need for the Agency to reposition their operations to comply with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.2007”, he stated .He further said that the Commission is ready to offer capacity building on the provisions of Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, particularly on the preparation of MTEF and the correct application of Fiscal Responsibility Commission Operating Surplus Template.
Also speaking, the Head of Legal, Investigation and Enforcement, Barrister Charles Abana stated that the Federal Government in line with chapter 16 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria increased the number of schedule Corporations in order to attract more revenues into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
