The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

He said the action became necessary following reports that some heads of agencies pay outrageous salaries not recommended by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.

He said, “Many of the parts or fully-funded agencies hide under the excuses that what they get from the Federal Government is not enough and that to argue it, they have no choice but to spend their revenue but that is not the law. It is an illegal diversion of government money.

“Some of the Acts that established most of the agencies are self-serving. They are not nationalistic.

“Hence, we have recommended to the National Assembly that there is an urgent need for us to review so many of the Acts that established most of the agencies so that they would be more nationalistic in outlook rather than to be self-serving.

“That is what we have recommended as a committee to ensure that government revenues get to the national purse.

“We observed that many federal agencies are spending government revenues on allowances and salaries which were not recommended by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal  Allocation Commission.

“We also noticed that some agencies are funding their salaries with loans and this has been recurring loans they are using to pay over time.

“They categorize the loans under extraordinary investments which is somewhere not disclosed.

“Typical example is the Security and Exchange Commission. We observed that the difference between what they generate and what they pay as salaries is above N5bn and we felt that this cannot be a normal situation.

“Even though the Director-General of the agency explained that he is trying to address the issue to ensure that what they generate is what they spend. “we equally observed that 80 percent of their bulk of revenue is enjoyed by the upper cadre that is the management team. Only 20 percent goes to the lower cadre. Such an arrangement cannot be supported by any right-thinking person.

“Other agencies not being subsidized from the government financial plan are additionally engaged with such practice.

“That is the reason we are requesting for a uniform salary structure for all agencies not being subsidized by the government.

“In any case, since they are creations of Acts of the National Assembly, they must choose the option to uncover and report everything identifying with funds, before the National Assembly.”