The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has cleared the Nigeria Customs Service of allegations that it failed to remit ₦62.2bn into the Federation Account, as contained in the 2019 Audit Report of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The committee reached the decision on Tuesday during an investigative session with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, over 77 audit queries raised against the agency in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports.
The committee, however, resolved to establish an ad hoc reconciliation panel to review the remaining 76 audit queries and report back for further consideration.
At the hearing, representatives of the Auditor-General’s office informed lawmakers that while the Customs Service generated more than 691 billion naira in revenue in 2017, only about ₦629 billion was remitted to the Federation Account, leaving an outstanding balance of ₦62.2 billion.
Responding, the Customs CG, Adewale Adeniyi, explained that the amount in question consisted of levies collected on behalf of other government agencies and was therefore not meant for remittance into the Federation Account.
According to him, the figure was wrongly classified as under-remittance in the audit report.
Adeniyi stated that while some levies collected by Customs are paid into the Federation Account, others, including certain levies on local production of wheat, textiles and wines, are designated for separate accounts.
He maintained that the disputed ₦62.2bn fell into that category and should not have been recorded as unremitted revenue.
The Customs boss also provided explanations on the second and third audit queries, which members of the committee described as satisfactory.
Some lawmakers questioned why the issues had progressed to a Senate investigation, arguing that they should have been resolved during routine reconciliation between Customs officials and auditors.
In his response, Adeniyi noted that the audit years under review coincided with a period of strained relations between the National Assembly and the Customs Service.
The reconciliation committee is expected to work with Customs officials and auditors to resolve discrepancies in the remaining audit queries before further legislative action is taken.
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