* Sets up committee for reconciliation of 76 other queries
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- The Senate has vacated query of N62.2billion underremittance slammed on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2019 audit report.
The clearance was carried out yesterday by the Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo, Gombe North, who led the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
The Committee, which held 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 the reconciliation of the remaining 76 queries.
Customs scaled through during the investigative session following what was described as convincing responses to queries one, two and three read to him by a representative of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Representative of the Auditor General, as directed by the Chairman of the committee, Senator Dankwabo, read to the Customs CG that in 2017, while N691.242 billion was the total revenue collected by Customs, N629.23 billion was remitted, leaving a a balance of N62.2 billion unremitted into the Federation Account.
In his response to the query, the Customs CG explained that the N62.2 billion classified as unremitted or underremitted 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.
He said, ” The under remittance of N62.2billion leveled 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 and wines, etc., do not go into the federation account , the totality of which accounted for the alleged unremitted N62.2 billion “, he said .
At the session, 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 reach the level of the committee’s investigation.
He said, “I was in the civil service just like the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo ( Gombe North ) , before venturing into politics . Queries one, two and three that you have responded to are supposed to have been trashed out at the reconciliation level with the auditors and not allowed to get to this stage.”
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 then resolved to set up a small committee to meet with customs for the reconciliation of issues raised in the remaining 74 queries.
