Audit Report: Senate panel clears Customs of ₦62 billion non-remittance query

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The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has cleared the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of the allegation that it failed to remit ₦62.2 billion to the Federation Account, as contained in the Auditor-General’s audit reports for 2017 to 2020.

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Chairman of the Committee, Ibrahim Dankwambo, announced the committee’s decision during a meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Mr Dankwambo, a former governor of Gombe State and accountant-general of the federation, said an ad hoc committee would be constituted to reconcile other issues raised by the Auditor-General, noting that most of the transactions in question occurred before the current Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, assumed office.

“We’ll set up a small team to sit with you in the next few days. We will set up a small team between the customs and us and iron them out once and for all, and bring only the outstanding issues instead of taking 99 issues that are all the same,” he said.

The committee had earlier raised about 77 audit queries related to alleged financial infractions against the NCS, following the Auditor-General’s report that questioned the handling of N62.2 billion during the period under review.

Hammed Ali, a retired colonel, served as Comptroller-General of Customs during the audit period. His tenure was marked by frequent disagreements with the National Assembly, particularly over his refusal to wear the Customs uniform and certain import duty policies.

At some point, lawmakers declared him unfit for the position and called for his removal, but then-President Muhammadu Buhari ignored the demand.

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The ₦62.2 billion query

Responding to the audit observations, Mr Adeniyi told the committee that the issues highlighted in the report originated during a period when relations between the Customs Service and the National Assembly were strained.

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However, his team reviewed the audit queries and found that several figures had been misclassified or miscalculated.

Mr Adeniyi explained further that the ₦62.2 billion in question comprised various levies, some of which were not required by law to be remitted to the Federation Account.

“When we read through most of the queries, a good number of them were mixed up either by miscalculation. The N62 billion is all levies and does not go to the federation account. While most of the levies are to be collected and remitted into the federation account, others like the ones on local production of wheat, textiles and wines do not go into the federation account, the totality of which accounted for the alleged unremitted ₦62.2billion,” he explained.

Most committee members expressed satisfaction with the explanation and urged the Service to continue efforts to boost government revenue.

Imo West Senator, Osita Izunaso, noted that many of the audit queries had already been reconciled in previous engagements.

“We can’t deal with all these things here because some of them are not necessary. They have ordinarily been reconciled and settled,” he said.