Seven Area Commands of the Nigerian Customs Services reported zero revenue despite being mandated to collect Common External Tariff (CET) levies and fees.
In his routine scrutiny of accounts, the Auditor-General observed that these area commands recorded zero revenue for over 9 months of the 12 months in 2019. The area commands oversee activities in fourteen (14) states in the country.
Paragraph 112 (i) (f) of the Financial Regulations mandates the accounts officer to ensure the collection of these levies and fees.
Ensure accurate collection and accounting for all public monies received and expended
CET levies are one of the levies collected by the Nigerian Customs. CET is the levy charged on manufactured products. It is charged on a wide variety of goods ranging from agricultural goods to manufactured goods. Asides from CET levies, Customs are saddled with the responsibility of collecting other fees such as import and export duties amongst others.
The Adamawa/Taraba area command recorded zero CET for 9 months while Bauchi/Gombe and Benue/Plateau/Nasarawa area command reported no CET collection for ten (10) months.
Four of these commands, Abia/Imo command, Adamawa/Taraba command, Bauchi/Gombe command and Benue/Plateau/Nasarawa command, reported zero revenue from custom fees throughout 2019.
The Borno/Yobe area command collected fees for only one month in 2019 while the Cross River and Delta/Edo area command defaulted for nine and six months respectively.
The Auditor-General couldn’t ascertain the magnitude of the loss as the area commands didn’t furnish him with the revenue target.
Non-oil revenue performance in 2019 was impressive, 75.36%. Having generated N3.23 trillion of the N4.28 trillion target given. However, it could have had better outcomes if revenue sources like Customs plug revenue leakages like non-collection of statutory fees.
By the end of 2019, Nigeria borrowed N4.18 trillion rather than the N1.92 trillion proposed deficit. The additional N2.26 trillion would have been less if all revenue access points like these levies are properly managed.
The management of these area commands provided no explanations on their inability to collect the levies.
The Auditor-General described this act as a weakness of the internal control system of the Nigerian Customs Service and requested that the Customs Controller General provide compelling reasons to back up the inability of the area commands to collect levies as they should; without which he will be forced to activate the sanctions on paragraph 3112 of the Financial Regulation.
For area commands in the Northeast and other conflict regions, these conflicts might explain why no levies were collected. Although it doesn’t explain why these commands cannot provide proper explanations to the auditor-general when it was requested of them.
For other zones, it will be interesting to see what their reasons for non-collection are, if they ever respond to the queries from the Auditor-General.
The disregard for questions raised by the Auditor-General in the course of the audits is becoming an increasingly prevalent thread. MDAs feel no need to explain discrepancies.
Perhaps it is time for the Auditor’s office to invoke the much promised sanctions.
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