The Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Rep. James Faleke(APC-Lagos), reprimanded FAAN after the disclosure of a yawning deficit in its remittances to the Federal government in a span of six years.

The House found that the agency, in 2014, remitted only N500milion to the Federation Account and only N1.4billion to the Federation Account in 2015, out of 6 years of revenues generated by the agency.

The Chairman of the Committee, also observed that whereas a report from the Accountant General’s office, said for the year 2015, FAAN remitted only about over a million naira, FAAN insisted that it remitted over N2billion naira.

A document made available to journalists at an interactive session between the House Committee and agency showed that FAAN made anticipatory remittances to the tune of N9billion, but was yet to make same in actual terms.

The Committee made the findings, in the course of interrogating the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the aviation agency, Capt. Rabiu H. Yadudu.

Page 4 of the MD’s submission to the Committee, under the subheading titled “Remittance to the Consolidated Revenue Fund(CRF)”, says “As part of our obligation to the Federal Government, the Authority has remitted cumulatively from 2014 to date, a total sum of N9,046,938,229,27(Nine Billion and Forty-Six Million, Nine Hundred and Thirty-Eight Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty-Nine Naira, twenty-Seven Kobo), in anticipation of the conclusion of our Financial Statement Audit, as guided by the SGF Circular Section C(ii)”.

He sought to be excused by the  Committee, as according to him, the  “Authority is committed to improving remittance to the Federation Account”.

 He, however, admitted that Budget estimates approved over the years, have been ambitious and predicated on many assumptions, some of which came to fruition, and some frustrated by factors beyond us”.

The Committee also directed FAAN to presented full evidence of revenue generation and remittances in 3 weeks.