In this interview, the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Engr. Elias Mbam, explains the increasing need for diversification of the nation’s economy and why the commission is reviewing the salaries and remunerations of public office holders, amongst other issues, during an interactive chat with journalists. Daily Trust correspondent, Latifat Opoola, was there.
At what stage is the commission now in respect of its plans to review revenue allocation formula for the three tiers of government?
The review of revenue allocation formula is a process and some of these processes are not easily seen from outside. These processes include research on fiscal matters, literature reviews and so on. It is when all these preliminaries are finished that we can now invite memoranda from stakeholders and Nigerians at large. But the preliminaries of studying fiscal matters and carrying out the literature review are ongoing. It won’t be long the committee will start inviting memoranda from all levels of government, the federal, state, the local government, the judiciary, the national and states’ houses of assembly, civil service and the public. It is after they have done that before they go into public hearing. So, very soon you will be hearing more on what is going on. We have not dropped the idea; we are still on the preliminaries.
In view of the newly approved minimum wage for civil servants, has there been any pressure from political office holders for increase in their salaries and emoluments?
We have not received any request on salary increment. However, it is the intention of the commission to review remuneration of public office holders this year and the process will determine whether it will be a reduction or something else. So, that is part of our primary responsibility and it is one of the areas we intend to address this year. The remuneration will reflect current realities.
Talking about current realities, are we to expect upward or downward review because we know that reflecting current realities we know that the country is not generating enough revenue?
I don’t want to pre-empt what will be the result. It is a process and the process if followed appropriately; we will arrive at the appropriate answer. The preliminaries have commenced.
In National Assembly where some legislators lost their seats or where after some time they will leave, Don’t you think that paying such lawmakers a lot is wasteful given the funding constraints the country is experiencing?
We have the chief accounting officer of the National Assembly, who is the Clerk of the National Assembly. It is his responsibility to ensure that laws are complied with. The commission does not go to the level of micro-managing or doing the work of the auditor.
Ours is to ensure that remittances from any source to the federation account and from the federation account to the beneficiaries are properly done. We don’t go to the level of auditing individuals. We do not do that. But the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) empowers every Nigerian to ask for details from the Clerk of the National Assembly.
Sometime ago RMAFC announced that NNPC failed to remit about $25b to the federation account. What is the current status of the findings and how much did NNPC deduct as subsidy for last year?
I don’t have the exact figures of the subsidy and there is a system the federation account operates. We have a sub-committee of federation account allocation committee. On monthly basis, they sit down with revenue generating agencies and look at their books. I am aware that there was a time they identified some shortfalls in some of these agencies including NNPC and they were required to refund.
These things are continuous. So, when they refund, they will still check whether they have new ones. I am not particular about the $25 billion, but I know that NNPC has been refunding liabilities established against it and it is a continuous process that every month the subcommittees on FAAC will meet and check the books of the revenue collecting agencies.
How much has accrued into the federation account from solid minerals sector and what are the measures you are putting in place to generate more revenue from the sector in 2020 fiscal year?
It was during my first tenure in the commission that solid minerals started contributing to the federation account. I don’t have the exact figure that it has contributed but I am aware that not once, not twice, they have shared money generated from that sector.
I also want to say that the 13 percent derivation was also applied in the sharing. So, 13 percent was not exclusive for the oil and gas, but any natural activity that generates money to the federation account. So, the money that was generated from solid minerals, the states from where it was generated from got their 13 percent.
It is our major area of concern now to develop the solid minerals sector to be able to generate more revenue to the federation account and we are carrying out advocacy campaign to states and local governments and to Nigerians in general that we should make use of what is available to us. Basically, every state has one form of mineral or the other and this country has the potential that if the solid mineral is developed it can generate more money than what is generated from oil and gas.
We also recommended that the money from the development of natural resources should be used to fund the development of the solid minerals sector because it is vital to our socioeconomic development. Until we diversify, we run the risk of one day not being able to pay salaries. So, solid minerals industry is a major area of our diversification and that is the interest of the commission.
Recently, a former governor who was a member of the National Assembly was jailed, and we heard that it is the commission that determines whether he will continue to receive his salary even as he is in jail, what is his legal status now in terms of these entitlements?
The commission does not make laws. It uses available laws in addressing issues within its mandate. It is not the responsibility of the commission to determine whether he should be paid or not paid but the law of the land will determine what should be done and as such, our own mandate is to determine what salary and entitlement is appropriate for public office holders.
Who is qualified at a particular time is guided by the law, it is not for us to know whether he is still a serving senator or not. But as far as he is still regarded as a senator, he is entitled to his entitlement. It is the law that determines this and not the commission.
The President promised that he will take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, what advise has the commission given him so far and what are you doing to support him?
The commission is committed to realizing the actualization of this 100 million people out of poverty target. One of the ways we can do that is by diversification through the development of the agricultural and solid minerals sectors.
Diversify the economy and there would be more jobs and then more revenue for government. So, one of the cardinal things for government to do is to expand the revenue base and that is why we say we are more concerned now with increasing the size of the cake. When government has more money, there would be more government investment which would yield employment. We are also trying to encourage and advice government on the areas where we have comparative advantage and develop. Like I said in solid minerals, we have a fund called the development of natural resources. Some of the funds from there could be used to develop the solid minerals sector.
