Reps Panel Queries FIRS Over Payment of N45m On Five Guests In Five Days, N40m On Entertainment

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee , PAC, on Thursday queried the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over the sum of N45.6 million spent for a five day accommodation on five guests at the Abuja Transcorp Hilton hotel in 2016.

The Committee being Chaired by Hon Busayo Oluwole Oke (Osun-PDP) flayed the transaction by the Agency when Its Chhairman, Mohammed Nami, appeared before the committee following a query from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation on its activitiies which violated financial requlation of the Federal Government

Hon Oke disclosed that a submission by the Agency showed that N45.6 million was spent on a five day accommodation in December 2016 on five guests with no details about spending.

He explained that the submission also showed all the payments were for justa single room , while zero was recorded for the number of persons that the sum was paid for.

Consequently, the Committee summoned the Management of the Transcorp Hilton to appear before it within seven days to give details about the bill and dismissed all efforts made by the Acting Directior of finance of the Agency

The Committee also queried FIRS for awarding a contract to a firm, Core Media, despite not meeting up tax clearance at the time of the award.

The Committee wondered why the FIRS awarded the contract to the company in 2017 when records showed it had only cleared its tax up to 2016.

Oke stated that the submissions by Core Media showed that they supported their bid with various invoices from the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).

The Committee also summoned the Managing Director of the firm as well as the Director General of the NTA to clarify the matter.

According to Oke,“looking at your submission on Core Media, it appears, it violates provisions of the Public Procurement Act, but we would not conclude so without having comprehensive evidence

“We have looked at submissions of Core Media that led to the FIRS awarding the contract to them and considered them as the preferred winner.

“Based on what we have seen here it seems FIRS has been misled or is it that some FIRS officials connived with Core, because if you are awarding a contract in 2017 and somebody presents you a tax clearance certificate of 2016 and you ignored it and you prefer them rather than consider those that presented 2017 tax clearances, you rather opted for the one who presented 2016 certificate. Something is fishy.

“CORE media supported their bid with various invoices from NTA from various state chapters. On that account we are inviting NTA DG to shed light. Want to be sure that none of the staff is conniving with this company to cheat the country.

“We are asking the MD of Core Media and NTA DG to cause appearance the committee within seven days”.