Joseph Oyebola
The embattled Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), is facing another accountability bout before the legislature, as the Senate committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has commenced investigation into how over N4 trillion was lost due to revenue leakage in the Service.
The committee at the weekend gave shocking details of various forms of sharp practices leading to loses of over N4 trillion revenue in Customs.
The committee frowned at the alleged corruption in the Service between 2006 and 2016, just as it vowed that those involved in the sharp practices would be made to return all recoverable monies with them.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Hope Uzodinma (PDP Imo West), who dropped the hint in an interview with journalists in Abuja said his committee had since commenced investigation into.
Uzodinma said preliminary investigation by the committee revealed that the N4trillion leakage was as a result of various forms of infractions, including abuse and non-implementation of Form M (Foreign Exchange forms).
He listed other factors responsible for the leakage to include wrong classification of cargo under HS Code (Harmonised System Codes), non-screening of cargoes coming into Nigeria, lack of adequate ICT infrastructure for revenue collection, cancellation of pre-arrival assessment reports and abandonment of single goods declaration.
The Senator, however, condemned the inability of the technical committee on the implementation of comprehensive import supervision scheme to ensure that the provisions of the Act are followed to the letter
Uzodinma said, “The committee also frowns at the level of collusion and corruption within the Customs Service. At the end of our current investigation, all these will become a thing of the past and customs revenue will be enhanced and non-oil revenue will be improved upon.
“What we are investigating is not money spent. It is the leakages. For instance, I am supposed to pay XYZ amount of duty, I will abandon the documentation, go get fake documents, collude with customs, pay maybe a fraction of it and carry my goods. With that, the true import circle is not closed.
“Another instance is that assessment is abandoned or I fill the form M for example with a pro forma invoice, apply for foreign exchange in Central Bank; XYZ amount of money is allocated to me; money moves in but no goods shipped. I will then go get fake documents, collude with customs and then retire the allocation”.
The committee chairman decried the sharp practices, which he said further include round tripping and false declarations that had, over time, led to increase in the exchange rate.
Uzodinma stressed that in most cases, the amount of money spent was not commensurate with the number of goods being imported, adding that the committee has started investigating activities of companies and banks indicted in the matter.
His words: “We will not mention the companies involved because we are also very careful of the integrity and public perception of some of these companies, being that some of them are in the Stock Market. We will be diplomatic in carrying out this investigation.
“This is to the extent that little or no damage will be done to the integrity and image of such companies provided that government revenues in their hands will be recovered”.
On the retrospective policy on payment of Customs duties on old vehicles, the lawmaker noted that the Service was overstepping its bounds by making policies rather than implementing them.
He said, “The power to make policies for the Service was vested in the Ministry of Finance. Having gone through the legislations and books available to my office as it has to do with the administration of the Customs Service, it only implements policies made by the Ministry of Finance.
“It sounds very strange to hear that Customs gets up and says they are making a policy. That is what I am yet to understand and there is no way to fathom that before the law. The referral is already before us. I was waiting for him (Hameed Ali) to appear before the Senate before we commence a full blown investigation into some of those issues that have been referred to us.
“Concerning the suspended policy on payment of Customs duties on old vehicles, the committee will continue to interface with the Service to ensure that the policy is cancelled and not just suspended. The whole idea is about governance and governance is about the people and nobody is licensed or entitled to talk about the people more than the elected representatives”.