By Kingsley Okoye

Senate on Tuesday, urged the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) to ensure adherence to Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) on generation and spending of government revenue by government agencies.

Sen. Solomon Adeola (APC-Lagos) and Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance made the call at the screening of Mr Victor Muruakor, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominee for the position of FRC Chairman.

Adeola said the FRC was established as a watchdog on revenue generating agencies.

“You are supposed to keep tab on all expenditure of all government agencies,”Adeola said.
He, however, decried the non composition of the FRC board in accordance with the act establishing the FRC.

“There should be representatives from each of the six geo-political zones as well as a representative of Civil Society Organisations among others,” he said.

He said the eventual confirmation of the nominee as substantive Chairman of FRC would only make him a sole administrator which was not the norm.

He said the committee would make contact with the presidency on the need to have a full board for the commission.

Muruakor said his eventual confirmation would give additional confidence to the activities of the FRC.

He urged the senate to review the FRA act to further strengthen the commission for effective discharge of its duties.

“We ask the parliament to assist us in looking at the act,the second ,third assembly looked at the act ,the fourth assembly is taking a look at it again.

“There is need to ensure punishment when the act is violated, that is our key challenge and that will answer most of the issues we are talking about .

“If the act is reviewed, we can fund the FRA and adequately run our activities,” he said.

Muruakor, who had been in acting capacity as Chairman of the Commission for over four years , said the commission under his watch had made some giant strides.

“On the remittances of the agencies, we brought about a standard practice, that is the template for calculation of operating surplus.
“We are going to strengthen the monitoring of their accounting system to nip in the bud the issue of agencies not submitting their annual audited accounts as at when due, these have affected remittances.

“We will engage the relevant stakeholders to look at what has affected the totality of enforcement of the act and our mandate.

“We will ensure strict monitoring to prevent wasteful expenditure by agencies with the aim of saving more funds for government,” he said.