The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate revenue leakages and non-remittance of Remita platform earnings.
As a result, the House charged the Committee on Public Accounts with investigating revenue leakages via the Remita Platform as well as substantive non-compliance with Standard Operating Procedures and other allied Service Level Agreements signed among Deposit Money Banks, the Office of the Accountant General, Systemspec, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), and the Central Bank of Nigeria, and reporting back within six weeks for further legislative action.
The resolution came after the House adopted a motion submitted in plenary on Wednesday by Hon. Jeremiah Umar and Hon. Jafaru Gambo.
Umar, who introduced the motion, noted that Remita is a software and financial service platform owned by System-Specs, a private company in charge of processing government revenue years.
The lawmaker stated that it has acted as a gateway for the federal government’s Treasury Single Account since 2012, albeit it was completely implemented in 2015 and has been used in the collection of government revenues over the years.
Umar said:
“Aware that over N8.7 trillion had been processed through the platform before the deployment of the software, the Nigerian government had over 15,000 Bank Accounts operated by Ministries, Departments and agencies (MDAs), the proliferation of accounts has moved from deposit money banks to Central Bank of Nigeria allowing MDAs to create multiple sub-accounts thereby negating the TSA Policy of the Federal Government.”
The lawmaker noted that the TSA system has created a cashless economy, transparency and effective tracking of cash assets with attendant accountability, but added that it has not fully blocked leakages and abuses by the proliferation of CBN Sub-Accounts.
Umar added that one per cent of the funds collected is charged as commission for making use of the Remita platform and shared among the company who owns the platform, Deposit Money Banks (processor) and Central Bank of Nigeria (License issuer) in the ratio of 50:40:10, respectively, describing it as alarming and unacceptable.
He expressed concern that despite the benefits and reasons for on-boarding the Remita platform, the rate of revenue leakages was worrisome, apart from non-compliance substantively with Standard Operating Procedures and other allied Service Level Agreements signed by parties.
Umar stressed that if this scenario continues unabated, the government would continue to experience a revenue shortfall and this would prevent the government from meeting the rising demand for good governance and infrastructural development from citizens;
He expressed worry that a larger percentage of deposit money banks has formed the habit of delay in on-ward remittance or sweeping of revenues collected to Central Bank of Nigeria;