Leakage: FG blocks contractors, debtors from running away with money
It is now impossible for contractors and debtors to make away with government’s money.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mallam Aliyu Ahmed made this declaration at the Business Session of the Fiscal Liquidity Assessment Committee (FLAC) retreat, organized by the Central Bank of Nigeria in Abuja.
Aliyu Ahmed said the government was able to achieve this by activating the Project Lighthouse, a debt recovery portal.
According to him, “in time past you will see that a private company which has conducted business with the government is indebted to the government but because this information is buried somewhere in a file, we have no visibility whatsoever.
“The same private company will even come back to the same ministry or agency, conduct another business, collect its money and walk away.
“With Project Lighthouse, this will no longer happen because government can now see all its transactions.
He stated that “once a private company is indebted to government, the moment you present that invoice for payment, it will automatically be flagged on the system that it is indebted to any agency of the government and payment will be stopped until that company goes to clear its debt” he said.
The Permanent Secretary noted that “in that manner we were able to raise a lot of revenue and recover some of the debt that the government was owed. It was no longer possible for contractors and companies to game the system and get away with so many things”.
The Federal Ministry of Finance he said has automated most of its revenue collection, debt recovery and workflow processes e.g., Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC), Project Lighthouse (Debt Recovery Portal), Project ERM (Electronic Records Management and File Tracking), OneFinance.gov.ng, etc., to make the processes more transparent.
In the area of electronic record management and file tracking, the Permanent Secretary described government’s progress so far as work-in-progress, “we are trying, we are not there yet we want to see how far we can go to abandon the filing system and conduct all our businesses online” he told the audience.
Sounding a note of caution, Aliyu Ahmed said that “notwithstanding the beauty of digital technology in finance, we should remain mindful of the inherent risks to monetary and financial system stability, particularly those bothering on cyber-security, that need to be identified, managed, and mitigated.
The fiscal arm of government he said “also pays close attention to the thriving fintech sector to boost tax collection, aid targeted social interventions, improve debt management, and facilitate international trade, amongst others.
