The House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee, has summoned Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigeria Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (NOGFZA) over the loss of revenue from companies operating in the oil and gas free zones,
The situation is necessitated by the audit queries issued by the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
Also invited is the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS).
The Committee also directed its clerk to publish the said audit queries from the office against defaulting agencies in three national dailies for the public, as well as the President to see.
The committee had hinged its rulings on the reports of the Auditor-General for the Federation detailing several infractions by government Ministries, Departments and Agencies submitted to it for legislative action.
The committee chairman, Hon. Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun) at the resumed investigation of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on Monday lamented the attitudes of the relevant government agencies who he said abdicated their statutory responsibilities of generating revenue for government whilst Nigeria goes cap-in-hand looking for loans from foreign countries and creditors to finance the nation’s annual budgets.
He said the purpose of the publication was to enable Nigerians and President Muhammadu Buhari to see and know those agencies sabotaging the government’s efforts to make life better for the citizenry.
He lamented that a situation where the country keeps suffering the loss of revenue through non-issuance of receipts for payments made to Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, Fraudulent practices on the issuance of Certificates of Acceptance on Capital Allowances by the Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Trade and Industry was unfortunate and unacceptable.
“We have invited all the regulators; Federal Ministry of Industry, Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, Onne, Standard Organisation of Nigerian and they are supposed to appear today.
“But they are not here. All the companies listed by the regulators, some of them are here, but the regulators are not here. From the evidence presented by these companies, we discovered that a company’s capital allowances rose from N4 billion to N33 billion within a year and they brought the certificate here for us to see.
“We called the ministry of Industry to come and confirm whether they issued the certificate or not.
“If you are issued a certificate for a foreign asset, an asset acquired outside the country, at least, there will be import duty, there will be the receipt. Ministry of Industry, did you inspect the asset before you issued a certificate of N33 billion?’’
