The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been questioned by the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for their failure to provide the Auditor General of the Federation with audited financial accounts for the fiscal years 2016 through 2018.
This was brought up during the committee meeting in Abuja that was chaired by Representative Bamidele Salam. The Auditor General of the Federation questioned the Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, along with his lieutenants, over the 2017 audited report.
Among the questions are those regarding the underremittance of revenue into the federation account in 2017 and the underreporting of the overdue remittance for 2016. Other examples include failing to maintain bank statements and bank reconciliation statements, failing to maintain revenue collectors’ receipts, and breaking the federal government’s e-payment policy.
The non-submission of audited financial accounts for the fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2018 is another concern raised by the inquiry. In response to inquiries, Adeniyi stated that the Office of the Accountant General for the Federation only deposited Common External Tariff funds into the federation account.
He added that others were actively remitted into the Non-Federation Account, stressing that since the inception of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Area commands do not maintain accounts with commercial banks
He added that all accounts were closed the revenue collected was remitted directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the statements were accessed at the customs headquarters through CBN’s Transaction Query System(TQS).
Documents submitted to the committee by the CGC however revealed that the audited financial statements for 2016, 2017, and 2018 financial years were presented to the Auditor General for Federation in 2021. The chairman of the committee directed the Auditor General to present documents on other queries raised against the commission.
