The House of Representatives committee on Finance has accused Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) of under remitting over N65billion between 2014-2019.
The Chairman of the Committee, James Faleke, made the disclosure at an interactive meeting, which held in Abuja, National Assembly between the Committee on Finance and other federal government revenue generating agencies
Faleke in his opening speech, stated that from the record available, FAAN remitted N9.046 instead of N74.36billion within the period.
He said, “from documents available to this committee by FAAN, we discovered that FAAN was supposed to have remitted the sum of N9.48billion but made remittance of N5billion for the year 2014 and similarly, in 2015 same FAAN under paid government over N7billion as it paid N1.145billion as reflected in the federation account but in your books before us, you stated that you paid N2.151billion. All these would need reconciliation if only you make your receipts available to this committee in the next 3 weeks.
“Meanwhile, in 2016, the actual amount due to federal government was supposed to be N11.6billion but you FAAN paid N1.56billion in the federation account. Also in 2017 the actual amount due to federal government was N13.19billion but you under paid the sum of N1.51billion.
“In 2018 you remitted N1.77billion instead of N14billion and in the year 2019 actual amount due to federal government was N15.49billion but you ended up paying N1.35billion.
“In all, the total sum paid is N9.046 instead of N74.36billion and we want you to give us the reason for this total disregard of the constitutional provision.”
In defence of the agency, the Managing Director (MD) of FAAN Mr. Rabiu Hamisau Yadudu claimed that the agency is currently subsidizing over 18 airports in Nigeria.
“With all due respect Mr. Chairman, FAAN is saddled with a lot of responsibilities in terms of capital expenses. Currently, FAAN is subsiding over eighteen airports across the country. We have been trying to solve all these issues and many other issues as demanded by the aviation industry, ” he said.
“You can go and make request for the Act to be amended. But besides that, every agency has similar finance issues but it does not stop the agencies from remitting the 25% of total revenue generated as constitutionally required. Again, if you have issues you can ask for presidential approval, ” he noted
