ABUJA: The Senate says it has uncovered N447.42 billion fraud perpetuated in the area of import duty waivers, concessions and grants by different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.
Chairman of the Senate adhoc committee on Import Duty Waivers, Concessions and Grants, Senator Adamu Aliero, gave this mind boggling report at Tuesday’s plenary which he said covered between 2011 and 2015. The report is a follow up to a motion moved on the floor of the Senate in January 2016.
The Senate subsequently set up an adhoc committee to investigate the claims in the motion and report back to it within a specified time.
According to the breakdown by the committee chairman, in 2011, N78,489,941,114.74 was lost through waivers, concessions and grants to different private companies who were engaged in importing goods to the country.
In 2012, the federal government lost N128,538,453,758.99. Similarly, in 2013, the Senate report claimed that N46,056,265,355.78 was lost as well as N87,654,744,360.22 in 2014.
According to Senator Aliero, former president GoodluckJonathan-led federal government approved N106,711,892,098.14 as waivers, concessions and grants to private companies in 2015 alone.
He bemoaned what he described as large scale revenue leakages that robbed government of huge sums of money that would have been used for provision of infrastructural development and social services.
He blamed the flagrant abuse of the process on lack of synergy among MDAs charged with the responsibilities of administering import duty waivers, concessions and grants.
He specifically named Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment, Nigeria Promotion Council, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as agencies responsible for the loopholes.
“Customs duty waivers and concessions have been used by the Budget Office of the Federation to entrench a very destructive patronage system to our economy, whereby very few operators in the economy were singled out for favoursresulting to unfair competition in the system,” Aliero noted.
Speaking specifically on waivers granted to importers of rice, Aliero said a total 27 companies benefited from the import quota with total allocation of 1,434,658 metric tonnes. He said four companies were yet to remit N23.603 billion to the Federal Government.
In the sugar sector, an estimate of N17.41 billion was lost to waivers, concessions and grants between 2011-2012 alone.
In the automobile sector, the committee report claimed that the then Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment,Olusegun Aganga granted waivers to Coscharis Motors to import 897 vehicles in 2015, while Globe Motors got a waiver to import 714 vehicles in the same year.
In its recommendations, the committee identified 22 priority areas. It recommended that the system be strengthened by reviewing all relevant laws.
It further recommended that the Federal Government restructured and streamlined the functions and responsibilities of the Budget Office of the Federation in such a way that will prevent it from further abuses and excesses in the import duty waivers, concessions and grants process.
The committee urged the Federal Government to ensure that in the future, government contractors do not enjoy duty waiver benefits.
“The Federal Government should impose severe sanctions against companies found to have benefited from import duty waivers, concessions and grants, but at the same time engage in acts of economic sabotage by diverting some vessels to neighboring countries of Benin and Niger Republics for the commodities to be smuggled into Nigeria through land borders,” the report further recommended.
Accordingly, the Senate has mandated relevant agencies of government to recover N10.3 billion from six companies that benefited from rice importation quota in 2014.
According to the Red Chamber, the six companies did not meet the criteria for granting the waivers
Meanwhile, Leader of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has denied claims that the probe was targeted at former president Goodluck Jonathan. He said lawmakers were after what was done wrong during the period under review and not the occupant of the office of the president.
Ndume also charged President Muhammadu Buhari to intensify efforts and recover the huge sum lost to abuse of waivers, concessions and grants. He said if the money was recovered, it will help the government in meeting some financial needs.
He revealed that the various committees will monitor the progress made by the Federal Government in recovering the monies, adding that it will not be business as usual.
