Reps summon Customs over non-rendition of accounts

By PHILIP NYAM

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday summoned the management of Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) over non-rendition of the audited financial accounts to the office of the Audit General of the Federation for the 2017 to 2019 financial years. Chairman of the committee, Hon. Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun), issued the summons while interrogating the management of the agency led by the Comptroller of Customs, S. l. Ibrahim on the audit queries raised by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation. Ibrahim had told the committee that the reports were being delayed by the external auditor who had promised to make the reports available soon.

The NCS representative then pleaded for more time for the external Auditor to complete his job to facilitate the rendition. Oke ruled that the auditor of the NCS should appear before the committee to explain why the audit was being delayed for three years. He stated that this became necessary so as to give the NCS fair hearing on the audit query raised by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation. Meanwhile, a report from forensic auditors, KPMG, has indicted about seven government revenuegenerating agencies for under- remitting over N526.35 billion and $21.199 billion to the Federation Account between January 2010 and June 2015.

A report, which was released by the Public Accounts Committee, showed that four other agencies under-remitted revenue to the Consolidated Revenue Fund amounting to about N49.160 billion within the same period. The report listed possible under remittances or over remittance against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as N557,852, 222,257.28 and $9,048,920,931.38 while the figure listed against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stood at N39,313,909.42 and $29,261,227.46.

It also listed N6,995,100,228.35 against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), N292,287,246.65 against the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), $570,632,772.46 against the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and $4,138,465,740.01 against the Federal Government.

It, however, explained that “NNPC represented that it has an outstanding claim of N797,710,684,354.00 against the Federation prior to 1 January 2010. “This period does not relate to our view period. Hence the legacy claim is not reflected in our figure above.” the report added. (New Telegraph)