Senate Committee Summons Attorney General Abubakar Malami, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, Others Over Alleged Fraud In E- Passport Deals
The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under
Remittance and other Fraudulent Activities in Collection, Remittance and
Expenditure of Internally Generated Revenue by MDAs, invited the duo for
briefing over their involvement
in alleged e-passport deals.
in alleged e-passport deals.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Solomon Adeola, made
this known
in a statement through his Media Adviser, Chief Kayode Odunaro.
Odunaro quoted Adeola as saying: “The AGF, Ahmed Idris, and
four private companies were invited to appear before it to brief the committee
on the multi-billion-naira e-passport production.”
Adeola said they were to also explain to the committee their
involvement in other immigration-related issues carried out by the companies on
behalf of Nigeria Immigration Service in a Public Private Partnership
arrangement.
According to him, the companies are Contec Nigeria Limited,
Greater Washington Nigeria Limited, Newwork Solution and Investment Limited and
Iris Smart Technologies.
The companies were said to be working on e-passport production,
Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card and other immigration-related issues.
The committee chairman added that they allegedly had
contractual agreements to perform some revenue generating service on behalf of
NIS, while withholding certain percentage of revenue accrued to Federal
Government.
He explained that the committee had invited various public
officials and corporate organisations following presentation made by
Comptroller General of NIS, Mohammed Babandede, on the revenue profile of the
service.
The chairman further said that stakeholders were invited to
brief the committee on modalities for distributing revenues running into
billions of Naira among the companies, NIS and Federal Government.
Adeola said: “I am at a loss as to why huge part of revenue
generated by NIS that should actually be based on Build, Operate and Transfer
was being paid to private firms in the name of PPP.
“We cannot be denying the Nigerian people of benefits that
should accrue to them through increased revenue to government coffers, while
allowing huge earnings for private concerns.
“This is an area that government can generate huge revenue.
There is need to get clarifications on this issue from all the parties
involved.”
Earlier in his presentation, Babandede disclosed that the
reasons for entering into a PPP arrangement was due to inadequate funding and
late release of budgeted sums.
He said other reasons for the partnership were multiple
acquisition of travel documents and poor revenue generation.
According to him, the private partners provide all the
funding, while monies realised in the course of issuing facilities will be
shared with government to allow the private partners recoup their investment.
Babandede also said that for the period of investigation by the Senate between 2012 – 2016, total remittance to Federal Government stood at over N17 billion and over $112 million.
Babandede also said that for the period of investigation by the Senate between 2012 – 2016, total remittance to Federal Government stood at over N17 billion and over $112 million.
He said: “The revenue accruing to government increased almost
a hundred fold since the introduction of PPP agreements.”
However, he said, the NIS could now undertake the services
provided by the companies.
The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, had at the
inauguration of the ad hoc committee stated that it was not set up to witch
hunt any individual or organisation.
Saraki said the essence of the committee was to help the
agencies to become more prudent in the collection and spending of revenue.
He said the committee would investigate whether statutory
transfers to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as required by law were being
carried out accurately when due.
He noted that the move was to further stop the abuse of
operating surpluses, where agencies spend “up to the last naira” on irrelevant
conferences and souvenirs.
The Senate president said that president, governors and
legislators were often blamed for unfavourable economic conditions, while heads
of most revenue generating agencies were spared of criticisms.
theeagleonline
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