The House of Representatives, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has slammed Nigeria Customs Service over the non-submission of audited financial statements for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 financial years to the Auditor General for the federation.
The Controller General of Customs, Basir Adewale Adeniyi, who appeared with his lieutenants, was questioned during the hearing of the Committee chaired by Representative Bamidele Salam over the queries raised by the Auditor General to the federation on the 2017 audited report.
Responding to the queries, the Controller General responded to the queries that only Common External Tariff is remitted into the Federation account by the OAGF, while others that are active are remitted into the non-federation account.
He confirmed an over-remittance of over one billion into the federation account, which showed no under-remittance of not less than sixty billion naira
He added that since the inception of the Treasury Single Account, area commands do not maintain accounts with commercial banks; hence, all accounts closed and the revenue collected is remitted directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the statements are accessed at the customs headquarters through CBN’s Transaction Query System (TQS).
While the Committee members expressed displeasure with the non-submission of audited financial statements for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 financial years at appropriate times, they also ordered the Auditor General to present documents on other queries raised against the commission.
According to him, “Since the introduction of repayment in 2009, the maintenance of Treasury Book 6A for revenue collections has been stopped. Rather, the repayment receipts on the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System platform have replaced Treasury Book 6A.”
“The service does not have fuel, and this necessitates the fueling of the vehicles for operational purposes, which cuts across the four zonal headquarters and area commands across the nation for control purposes.”
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