By Chukwudi Obasi, Abuja
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has queried the Nigeria Immigration Service for failing to submit its audited statement of accounts from 2014 to 2023.
The Service was also queried for spending N2bn on a furnishing project, exceeding its threshold of N100m for such projects.
This was as the committee grilled the Comptroller General of the Service, Kemi Nanna Nandap, yesterday for violating financial regulations related to contract awards and account renditions.
The Controller General was represented by Deputy Controller General Adah James Umanah, who appeared alongside the Assistant Comptroller of Immigration, Okwuone Patrick, and an accountant, Ibanga Emem Brownson, among other senior officers.
Brownson told the committee that the Service had a threshold of N1bn and below, but the representative of the Auditor General at the hearing said that the NIS had an approval limit of N100m for such projects.
The Immigration delegation could not give any reason why it exceeded their approval limit
They also failed to provide a Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval to authorise the spending of such an amount.
The hearing aimed to probe the unaccounted-for use of N6.1bn received by the Nigerian Immigration Service from the Service Wide Votes Special Intervention Fund.
According to the committee’s chairman, Bamidele Salam, the Service received N1bn each for 2021 and 2022 and N4.1bn for 2022 and 2023.
Salam said they were also to be queried on the Auditor General’s report for 2020, which indicated three significant queries against the Service.
Salam said this included the payment of N350m for the not-executed contract, N252,400,158 for regular payment for a foreign tour, and N755,310,543 for unapproved utilization of preliminary items, totalling N1.2bn.
Salam added that for the 2021 Auditor General’s report, Immigration was also to respond to five issues raised by the Auditor General.
“The first one has to do with denying access to records of capital expenditure slash contracts to N12m and N10m. Illegal custody of government motor vehicles N139m, unapproved expenditure from revenue account N761, 977,585, irregularities in contract execution, N2,010,080,759. Funds appropriated for the store were not accounted for to the tune of N2,227,060,521, all totalling N18bn. That’s in 2021,” Salam said.
The committee observed that the NIS awarded Julius Berger Nigeria Limited a contract valued at N2,010,080,759 for furnishing the NIS Technology Building, located at its headquarters in Abuja.
The committee’s investigation also revealed that Julius Berger Nigeria Limited was paid N1.7 bn for furnishing the technology building, but the required stamp duty was not deducted from this payment.
The CGI’s representative clarified that the N4.1bn was transferred into the Service’s account on December 30, 2022, but it was mopped on December 31, 2022.
She also confirmed that the N2bn was used to settle outstanding debts with domestic contractors.
She admitted that the NIS had failed to deduct the stamp duty on the N1.7bn payment made to Julius Berger.
In response, the committee unanimously ordered the NIS to recover the N15m stamp duty paid to Julius Berger and remit it to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) within seven days.
They also instructed the Service to provide evidence of the remittance to the committee.
Additionally, the Public Accounts Committee gave the NIS seven days to submit proof of the rendition of its audited accounts from 2014 to 2023.
Moreover, the PAC directed the NIS to provide proof of Federal Executive Council approval for the over N2bn contract awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited.
The PAC stated that the Service must submit a response to the eight queries raised by the Auditor General, 2020 and 2021, totalling N19.2bn.
Brownson said they had submitted the Auditor General’s report for 2020 and 2021, but they were still fine-tuning it.
The response confused the lawmakers, who wondered how they could still fine-tune it after submitting the reports.
Brownson also said the N4.1bn paid into the Service’s account was automatically reversed, but the committee demanded evidence that the Service did not have.
The Committee Chairman directed that the Comptroller General appear in person at the next hearing alongside the Director, Finance and Accounts of the Service.
The committee resolved that they must appear for the next hearing on February 25, 2025.
