Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, has raked in more money in tax revenue for the government than any of his predecessors. In 2018 alone, he collected N5.32 trillion, the highest in Nigeria’s history. This is so much for the efficiency of the tax boss. But right under his watch, corruption has never been this bolder in the agency.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are busy probing multiple sleazes at the FIRS. Many officials are taking turns to answer questions of missing billions of naira.
In April, nine senior officials of the agency, including the Director of Finance and Accounts, Mohammed Auta, were arrested over a missing N6 billion.
At the time, the coordinating director, support services of the FIRS, Peter Hena, could not be arrested because he was out of the country. He later sent his resignation letter through electronic means to his boss, Fowler. A few days later, EFCC sources said he showed up to face the EFCC operatives.
Hena, according to EFCC investigators, made approvals to payments of fictitious travel allowances to many staff who didn’t travel anywhere.
A Daily Trust report of April 16, quoted an EFCC official who disclosed that: “some of the staff were questioned on why they received huge amounts of money in their accounts, but evidence from the staff attendance register showed that they did not travel. Many of them explained how they remitted the money to a particular account and kept a percentage.”
During the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting of May, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) protested that the FIRS short paid the federation account by N27 billion for the month of December 2018.
According to the FIRS records, it claimed to have remitted N321.23 billion to the Federation Account. But the CBN insisted that what it got from the FIRS was N294.62 billion. The shortfall of N27 billion remains unexplained.
Sources within the FIRS said the discrepancy between the CBN’s record and those of the FIRS was not an accounting error, but the evidence of the kind of financial malpractices taking place within the agency. They said it could have gone unnoticed but for some alert auditors at CBN.
The sources wondered why the EFCC, after arresting the Director of Finance and Accounts, Auta, and the coordinating director, support services of the FIRS, Hena, did not arrest Fowler since the two men report to him.
But the EFCC may be circumspect in the Fowler affair. Fowler and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were childhood friends and classmates at the Igbobi College, Lagos, between 1969 and 1975. They both served under the administration of Bola Tinubu whose lifespan was between 1999 and 2007. Fowler as Lagos Internal Revenue Service boss, while Osinbajo as Attorney General of Lagos State.
After his appointment as the Executive Chairman of FIRS in August 2015, Fowler introduced the Lagos model of tax collection to the federation, that is, using consultants instead of civil servants. Just as Alpha Beta is the sole tax collector for Lagos state government, Fowler appointed several consultants for the FIRS.
Alpha Beta was appointed to collect tax for the Lagos government in 2005 during the tenure of Bola Tinubu as governor. Fowler was its pioneer chief executive. Its fee is 10 per cent of Lagos internally generated revenue which on a monthly basis is N34 billion. So, Alpha Beta is entitled to N3.4 billion for raking-in N34 billion to the government every month.
At the federal level, Fowler appointed many consultants. One of such consultants is the Law firm of Vice President Osinbajo, SimmonsCooper Partners. The firm was appointed to audit Nigerian companies and collect revenue on behalf of the FIRS.
Fowler also appointed Messrs. Rholavision Engineering, owned by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, now facing fraud charges, as the maintenance company of all Information Communication Technology equipment of the FIRS.
Sources say Fowler gave those contracts as a strategy to get presidential protection in the event of a rainy day where security agencies might want to probe the FIRS affair.
The sources alleged that many petitions against the FIRS are in the EFCC but they remained ignored.
“Inflation of the contract for the construction of the new headquarters building of the FIRS previously awarded to Messrs. Bouyguess Nigeria Limited at N39 billion by President Jonathan. This contract which is at more than 80 per cent completion, has now been inflated to N85 billion and we have documentary evidence of kickbacks from the contract running into billions paid to the FIRS leadership and government officials,” the sources alleged in a detailed petition.
The petition alleged that Messrs. El-Rufai and Partners, a company owned by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was given the contract to do the valuation of the new FIRS headquarters building without bidding or procurement due process.
The sources also alleged that employment into the FIRS is only for sons and daughters and nominees of their cronies and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In 2016, a news website, Sahara Reporters, had reported that FIRS under Fowler had recruited 349 staff secretly without public advertisement of vacancies to be filled nor sought approval of the Federal Character Commission.
But the FIRS director of information, Wahab Gbadamosi, later issued a statement in which he claimed that the recruitment had the blessing of certain undisclosed government agencies.
“Your enquiry on the targeted recruitment at the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS refers. We wish to respond as follows: Please note that requisite agencies of government approved the targeted recruitment by the FIRS. Due Process in recruiting into a Federal Government agency was followed; The FIRS is a conscientious, law-abiding institution which adheres to statutory rules and procedures; The FIRS is focused on its duty to collect revenue to fund the national budget and pleads that it should be allowed to concentrate on its 2016 target of N4. 9 trillion,”Gbadamosi was quoted to have said.
The sources also alleged that the highly coveted FIRS job is also monetized to the extent that payments are openly made for recruitment slots.
While the EFCC may continue to probe the FIRS, Fowler has one thing working for him. He has raked-in more money than any of this predecessors. And that may be all he needs to get a presidential waiver.
