Council blames financial regulatory agencies for depletion of foreign reserves

The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), says financial regulatory agencies are to blame for the depletion of the nation’s foreign reserves.

The council also said the poor accountability of regulatory agencies was responsible for the alleged repatriation of 13.9 billion dollars by MTN and other economic infractions.

The Executive Secretary of the council, Jim Obazee apportioned the blames during a public hearing by the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions over the alleged repatriation of 13.9 billion dollars by MTN in Abuja on Thursday.

“The short answer to it is very poor accountability and regulatory practice in Nigeria.

“The regulatory agencies are not working; if they are working, definitely a lot of these infractions will not occur.

“You cannot have the security personnel at your gate who has suddenly left the gate opened and then you say somebody stole your assets and you cannot find them.

“The regulatory agencies, after their submissions will definitely find their role in all of them because there are laws that are supposed to protect”, he said.

According to him, the regulatory agencies will need to check their own financial statement especially those who are supposed to account for our external reserves.

“If we continue to see a drop year in year out, explanation will be given to the National Assembly or the government on why our external reserves is dropping.

“There will also be question on why our inflows are not adequately matched with outflows”, he said.

He also alleged that the regulatory agencies had not submitted their financial reports for over four years.

Obazee added that the council could contribute better to the growth of the economy if the regulatory agencies performed their jobs effectively.

He said such contribution to the economy would require government to mandate its entities to prepare up-to-date financial statement and forward them to the council for review.

“You will be surprised that a number of government entities for the past four years could not prepare financial statements.

“These entities should not be entitled to budgetary funds because they have not accounted for the money given to them before. Why are they asking for new one? ”, he added.