by Ranti Joseph
The All Progressives Congress Campaign Organisation on Monday has described the Federal Government’s commencement of an independent revenue e-collection scheme under the Treasury Single Account initiative as too little too late.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential campaign, Garba Shehu.
According to the APC, some of the policies being hurriedly implemented by the administration are only predicated on the anticipation of an inevitable win by Muhammadu Buhari in the March 28 presidential elections.
Shehu said some of the policies of the Jonathan-led PDP Federal Government being implemented by its MDAs ahead of the 2015 general elections are aimed at protecting itself from the inevitability of Muhammadu Buhari win and his zero tolerance for corruption and stealing of state funds.
“These are obviously last-minute attempts by the President Goodluck Jonathan government to plug loopholes in federal revenue collection by centralizing the process, a clear reaction to their expectation of General Muhammadu Buhari’s coming to power,” Shehu said.
He said the scheme is as suspicious, the FG’s new directive that all revenue collections of MDAs, which used to be deposited in banks, should now be sent directly to the Consolidated Revenue Fund at the Central Bank of Nigeria through electronic payment channels.
“They didn’t do this all these years, and now with barely four weeks to go, they suddenly think this is essential. It is even more suspicious when viewed along with the report of the inauguration of the Automated Aviation Revenue Project by the Ministry of Aviation. These people are clearly plugging the loopholes, obviously having stolen enough. The idea to plug loopholes is on its own desirable but it should worry any well-meaning Nigerian that it has taken this administration the better part of nearly six years for it to realise that the bane of this government is outright stealing, waste and mismanagement of resources,” he added.
