Abuja: The Senate on Tuesday, through its Public Accounts Committee, vacated the query of N62.2 billion under-remittance, which had been imposed on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2019 audit report. This decision followed an investigative session held by the committee to address the 77 queries concerning financial infractions raised against Customs in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports, with the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, in attendance.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo, also resolved to establish a small committee to reconcile the remaining 74 queries. The smooth proceedings for Customs during the investigative session were attributed to convincing responses provided to queries one, two, and three, which were read to a representative of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The committee was informed that while the total revenue collection by Customs was N691.242 billion, N629.23 billion was remitted, leaving a balance of N62.2 billion unremitted into the Federation Account. In response to the query, the Customs CG explained that the N62.2 billion, classified as unremitted or under-remittance in the 2019 audit report, represented the total sum of levies collected by Customs on behalf of other agencies, which were not intended for remittance into the federation account.
The Customs CG clarified that the alleged under-remittance was a result of misclassification of levies collected. He noted that while most levies should be collected and remitted into the federation account, others related to local production of wheat, textiles, wines, etc., do not go into the federation account, accounting for the alleged unremitted N62.2 billion.
Similar explanations were provided by the Customs CG on queries two and three, prompting a member of the committee, Senator Babangida Hussaini (APC-Jigawa North-West), to question why Customs allowed the queries to escalate to the level of the committee’s investigation. He expressed that such matters should have been resolved during reconciliation with the auditors.
The Customs boss reminded the committee members that the years under review were periods marked by frosty relationships between the Senate and Customs, which might have contributed to the progression of the queries to this stage.