The Nigerian Senate, through its Public Accounts Committee (SPAC), vacated the query of N62.2 billion under-remittance slammed on the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2019 audit report.
The committee, which had an investigative session on the entire 77 queries on financial infractions raised against Customs in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports with the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, also resolved to set up a small committee for reconciliation of the remaining 76 queries.
Customs smooth sailing at the investigative session followed convincing responses made to queries one, two and three read to him by a representative of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The representative of Auditor General as directed by the chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe North ), read to the Customs CG that in 2017, while N691.242 billion was the total revenue collection by Customs, N629.23 billion was remitted, leaving a balance of N62.2 billion unremitted into the Federation Account.
In his response to the query, the Customs CG said the N62.2 billion classified as unremitted or under-remittance in the 2019 audit report was the total sum of levies collected by Customs on behalf of other agencies which are not for remittance into the federation account.
“The under-remittance of N62.2 billion levelled against Customs in the 2019 audit report was wrongly arrived at through misclassification of levies collected.
“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, wines, etc. do not go into the federation account, the totality of which accounted for the alleged unremitted N62.2 billion,” he explained.
Similar explanations were offered by the Customs CG on queries two and three, which made a member of the committee, Senator Babangida Hussaini (Jigawa North West), wonder why Customs allowed the queries to get to the level of the committee’s investigation.
“I was in the civil service, just like the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo, before venturing into politics. Queries one, two and three that you have responded to are supposed to have been thrashed out at reconciliation level with the auditors and not allowed to get to this stage,” he said.
The customs boss, however, reminded the committee members that the years under review were a period when the Senate and customs had a frosty relationship.
The committee resolved to set up a small committee to meet with customs for reconciliation of issues raised in the remaining 74 queries.
