The Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) on Tuesday in Abuja cleared the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of an alleged N62.2 billion under remittance contained in the 2019 Audit Report of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
The review followed explanations provided by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, during an investigative session on 77 audit queries bordering on alleged financial infractions raised against the service in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports.
The committee also resolved to establish a small reconciliation committee to work with the Customs Service on the remaining 76 audit queries.
SINL NIgeria Online reports that the session focused initially on the first three queries, which were presented by a representative of the Auditor-General’s office at the directive of the committee chairman, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe North).
According to the audit report, while the Nigeria Customs Service generated N691.242 billion in revenue in 2017, only N629.23 billion was remitted into the Federation Account, leaving an alleged balance of N62.2 billion unremitted.
But Adeniyi explained that the amount in question represented levies collected on behalf of other government agencies and was therefore not meant to be paid into the Federation Account.
He argued that the query arose from a misclassification of revenue streams by auditors.
“The alleged underremittance of N62.2 billion was wrongly arrived at through the misclassification of levies collected by Customs. While some levies are required to be remitted into the Federation Account, others, including those imposed on local production of wheat, textiles, wines and related products, are not payable into the Federation Account. These accounted for the amount identified as unremitted,” he said.
The Customs boss offered similar explanations regarding the second and third audit queries, which appeared to satisfy members of the committee.
Satisfied with the explanations provided, the committee vacated the N62.2 billion underremittance query and directed that a smaller committee be constituted to reconcile issues relating to the remaining audit observations.
