The National Assembly says government ministries, departments and agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, must present evidence of 25 per cent Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) remittance as a precondition for accessing the 2023 budget.

Bima Enagi, the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, said this on Tuesday in Lagos at an oversight meeting with training and research institutions in the agric sector.

Mr Enagi said the committee’s decision became necessary, given the revelation that most agencies in the sector were not making the 25 per cent remittance to the government as stipulated by law.

“Basically, in the area of revenue generation, most of the agencies are not remitting what they should remit, and we have addressed that, and believe that by they come for the budget defence, they will ensure that the required balances are remitted.

“They will come with documentary evidence for the committee members to look at it and be convinced that the law has been compiled with.

“We expect each of them who falls into the category to comply. If any of them fail to comply, I can assure you we will not handle their 2023 budget proposal,” he said.

Mr Enagi said the two-day oversight had gone well, saying the committee attended to 18 agric sector establishments in the south.

“The focus of the oversight is to discuss with them and ask questions on the implementation of 2020 and 2021 budgets; actually, the response has been very good,” he said.

Senator Bello Mandiya (APC- Katsina) said the committee would not take issues of non-remittance of 25 per cent lightly with defaulters adding that evidence of remittances must be provided during the budget defence.

He questioned the rationale behind the non-remittance by most agencies, saying that the committee might be compared to report defaulters to the Ministry of Finance and the Account-General of the Federation.

Members of the committee also commended the management of the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology Lagos for the giant strides made in infrastructure and academic programmes since 2019.

The agencies that made presentations on the second day of the oversight included the Federal College of Agriculture Akure, Federal Cooperation College, Orji-River, Enugu state, Federal College of Land Resources, Federal College of Animal Development, Federal College of Agriculture Ishiagu, Ebonyi state, among others.

(NAN)