Senate Panel Clears Customs of ₦62 Billion Non-Remittance Allegation

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has cleared the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of claims that it did not remit ₦62.2 billion to the Federation Account. This was part of the Auditor-General’s audit reports covering 2017 to 2020.

Ibrahim Dankwambo, the Committee Chairman, shared the decision during a meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Dankwambo, who is a former governor of Gombe State and accountant-general of the federation, mentioned that a small team would be set up to address other issues raised by the Auditor-General. He pointed out that most of the questioned transactions happened before the current Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, took over.

"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.

Earlier, the committee had raised about 77 audit queries about alleged financial issues with the NCS. This followed the Auditor-General’s report, which questioned how the ₦62.2 billion was handled during the review period.

Hammed Ali, a retired colonel, was the Comptroller-General of Customs during this audit period. His time in office saw many clashes with the National Assembly, especially due to his refusal to wear the Customs uniform and his policies on import duties.

At one point, lawmakers said he was unfit for the job and wanted him removed, but then-President Muhammadu Buhari did not act on their demand.

The ₦62.2 Billion Query

In response to the audit findings, Adeniyi told the committee that the issues pointed out in the report came from a time when the relationship between the Customs Service and the National Assembly was not good.

He added that his team looked into the audit queries and found that many figures were either misclassified or miscalculated.

Adeniyi explained that the ₦62.2 billion in question came from different levies, some of which did not legally need to be sent to the Federation Account.

"When we read through most of the queries, a good number of them were mixed up either by miscalculation. The ₦62 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 ₦62.2 billion," he explained.

Most members of the committee were pleased with the explanation and encouraged the Customs Service to keep working to increase government revenue.

Senator Osita Izunaso from Imo West pointed out that many of the audit queries had already been sorted out in earlier discussions.

"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.