The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) to submit a full breakdown of outstanding operating surplus and other revenues owed to the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and other government 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), without refunding the funds on time.
The directives were issued during an investigative hearing attended by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Babatunde Ogunjimi.
A member of the committee, Hon. Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, raised concerns over persistent revenue leakages and poor remittances by government-owned enterprises, describing the trend as a major threat to Nigeria’s fiscal sustainability. He noted that despite statutory requirements for such enterprises to remit a significant portion of their operating surplus to the Federal Government, several agencies still had outstanding obligations.
Isiaka urged the OAGF to provide details of the outstanding remittances and determine whether major revenue-generating agencies — including the CBN, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) — were remitting amounts proportional to their financial strength.
Responding, the Director of Revenue and Investment in the OAGF, Makinde Mogaji, disclosed that the CBN alone owes the Federal Government N5.3 trillion in unremitted operating surplus. He said the apex bank had yet to comply with the remittance requirement despite the committee’s recovery efforts.
He added that while some agencies, including the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), had remitted substantial sums — N473 billion in FAAN’s case — compliance remained poor among several others.
On the OAGF’s policy of automatic deductions from MDA accounts, Ogunjimi explained that the measure was introduced as an advance recovery mechanism for operating surplus owed to the Federal Government. He said the policy significantly boosted government revenue last year but met resistance from some agencies, which sought presidential intervention to reverse or reduce the deductions.
According to him, some agencies secured approval for total cancellation or reduction of the deductions, while others — including the NNPCL — failed to cooperate with the process. He revealed that disputes with the NNPCL over the deductions are still being handled by a post-mortem committee set up to resolve the matter.
Mogaji explained further that the automatic deduction system was designed to recover estimated operating surplus in advance, with final reconciliation later determining whether agencies had been over-deducted or still owed additional remittances.
However, the committee chairman, Hon. Bamidele Salam, questioned the legality of the deductions following petitions from agencies including UBEC and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) over funds allegedly withdrawn from their accounts.
Salam disclosed that UBEC alleged that about N16 billion due to it under its Authority to Incur Expenditure was never released, while another N15 billion was withdrawn from its account without refund. He said similar complaints had been received from NASENI and other agencies currently under investigation by the committee.
Ogunjimi defended the deductions as temporary borrowing approved by the Federal Government to meet urgent national obligations, insisting the OAGF did not arbitrarily withdraw funds but assessed whether the money had remained idle before seeking approval from the Minister of Finance to use it temporarily. He cited the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), noting that over N300 billion borrowed from the agency had been fully refunded.
The committee chairman rejected this justification, insisting that statutory agencies require uninterrupted access to their funds to carry out their legally assigned responsibilities. Salam warned that withholding UBEC’s funds undermines critical government programmes, particularly efforts to tackle Nigeria’s out-of-school children crisis through the provision of schools, learning materials and educational infrastructure.
He directed the OAGF to submit detailed records of all deductions, outstanding refunds and unremitted operating surplus owed by government agencies to enable the committee conclude its investigations.
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