Reps probe alleged revenue leakages through Remita platform

The House of Representatives on Wednesday mandated its committee on Public Accounts to investigate alleged revenue leakages through the Remita platform and report back within four weeks.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Jeremiah Umaru (Nasarawa, APC) and Jafaru Gambo (Bauchi, APC).

Moving the motion, Umaru said Remita is a software and financial service platform owned by System-Specs which is a private company in charge of managing government revenues.

He said the platform had been serving as a gateway for the Treasury Single Account of the Federal government and was fully adopted in 2015 for the collection of government revenues.

Pope meets relatives of Hamas hostages, Palestinian prisoners

Qatar mediates Gaza ceasefire, hostage deal

Umaru however raised concerns over the non-compliance with Standard Operating Procedures and other allied
Service Level Agreements signed among Deposit Money Banks, Office of The Accountant General, Systemspec, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He said despite the benefits and reasons advanced 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.

The lawmaker expressed concern that a larger percentage of deposit money banks had formed the habit of delay in on-ward remittances or sweeping of revenues collected to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He said if the trend continued unabated, the government would continue to experience a revenue shortfall and prevent the government from meeting the rising demand for good governance and infrastructural development from citizens, hence, the need for the probe.