Senate panel upholds queries against FRCN over N187m debts

The Senate panel on public accounts has upheld the query by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation on the failure by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigerian (FRCN) to recover over N187 million advert debts.

The chairman of the committee, Mathew Urhoghide, upheld the query following the appearance of the Director General of the FRCN, Mansur Liman, before the committee.

The query reads: “Financial records maintained at Ibadan zonal office (FRCN Ibadan) revealed huge unrecovered advert debts of ₦120,099,666.88 owed to the corporation as at December 2016. The debt is as a result of services rendered on credit to some companies by the zonal office, contrary to the provisions of Financial Regulations 224 and 230 (2009), which stipulates that all services rendered by government must be paid for immediately on completion of the service and where possible, payment may be made in advance; and where payment is outstanding, a system of follow-up by means of reminders and final demand should be made.

“Unrecovered advert debts of ₦67,842,011.50 which were in respect of services provided on credit to some companies by the Lagos operations of the corporation were being owed to it as at December 2016; and majority of them have been outstanding for more than five years.”

But Liman, while responding to the query, claimed that the outstanding debts came because of the bankruptcy of those companies, which led to change of business names.

He added that when the FRCN approached the new companies to pay, they declined, claiming it was not part of the liability they inherited, although N28 million had so far been recovered.