The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has grilled the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for violations of financial regulations related to contract awards and account renditions.
The Committee’s action was as the service appeared before the committee over Audit queries contained in 2020, 2021 report, utilisation of Service-wide vote and operating surplus.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Bamidele Salam said that the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) reported that the NIS had failed to submit its audited accounts for the period from 2014 to 2023. As a result, the FRC was unable to determine the service’s liability regarding the remittance of operating surplus.
He also said that the NIS’s failure to submit its accounts for this period violated both financial regulations and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The Committee also observed that the NIS awarded a contract valued at N2,010,080,759.65 to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited for the furnishing of the NIS Technology Building, located at its headquarters in Abuja.
Approved threshold
This contract was awarded above the service’s approved threshold without obtaining the necessary approvals from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the Parastatal Tender Board.
The document received by the committee revealed that the NIS received a total of N6.1 billion from the federal government, consisting of N2 billion for capital expenditure and N4.1 billion for recurrent expenditure between 2021-2023.
The Committee’s investigation also revealed that a payment of N1.7 billion was made to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited for the furnishing of the technology building, but the required stamp duty was not deducted from this payment.
The Controller General of Immigration Mr. Kemi Nanna Nandap, clarified that the N4.1 billion was transferred into the service’s account on December 30, 2022, but it was subsequently mopped on December 31, 2022.
Settle outstanding debts
Represented by Deputy Controller General Mrs. Ada James, who was accompanied by other senior officers of the service he also confirmed that the N2 billion was used to settle outstanding debts with domestic contractors.
Mrs. James admitted that the NIS had failed to deduct the stamp duty on the N1.7 billion payment made to Julius Berger.
In response, the Committee unanimously ordered the NIS to recover the N15 million stamp duty paid to Julius Berger and remit it to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) within seven days. They also instructed the service to provide evidence of the remittance to the Committee.
The Public Accounts Committee also gave the NIS seven days to submit proof of the rendition of its audited accounts for the period 2014 to 2023.
Moreover, the PAC directed the NIS to provide proof of Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval for the over N2 billion contract awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited.
The PAC stated that the service is required to submit a response to the 8 queries raised by the Auditor General, 2020 and 2021, which totaling N19.2billion.
Lateefah Ibrahim
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