The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, grilled the Nigerian Immigration Service, urging the Service to recover the N15 million stamp duty paid to Julius Berger and remit it to the Federal Inland Revenue Service within seven days.

The committee also instructed the service to provide evidence of the remittance.

The committee, chaired by the member representing Ede South/Ede North/Ejigbo/Egbedore Federal Constituency, Osun State, Bamidele Salam, took action following the failure of NIS to appear before the committee to answer queries arising from audit queries contained in 2020, 2021 reports, utilisation of Service-wide vote and operating surplus.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Salam stated that the Fiscal Responsibility Commission informed the Committee that NIS failed to submit its audited accounts from 2014 to 2023.

Consequently, the commission was unable to determine the service?s liability regarding the remittance of operating surplus.

The lawmaker, ?NIS?s failure to submit its accounts for this period violated both financial regulations and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

?The Committee also observed that NIS awarded a contract valued at N2.01bn to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited for the furnishing of the NIS Technology Building, located at its headquarters in Abuja.

?This contract was awarded above the service?s approved threshold without obtaining the necessary approvals from the Federal Executive Council and the Parastatal Tender Board.

?The document received by the Committee revealed that the NIS received a total of N6.1bn from the federal government, consisting of N2bn for capital expenditure and N4.1bn for recurrent expenditure between 2021-2023.?

The committee?s investigation also revealed that a payment of N1.7bn was made to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited for the furnishing of the technology building, but the required stamp duty was not deducted from the payment.

The Controller General of Immigration, Mr Kemi Nandap, was represented by Deputy Controller General, Mrs Ada James at the hearing.

Clarifying some of the issues, Mrs James stated that the N4.1bn was transferred into the service?s account on December 30, 2022, and was subsequently mopped on December 31, 2022, adding that the sum of N2bn was used to settle outstanding debts with domestic contractors.

She also admitted that NIS had failed to deduct the stamp duty on the N1.7bn payment made to Julius Berger.

The Public Accounts Committee also gave the NIS seven days to submit proof of the rendition of its audited accounts from 2014 to 2023.

It also directed the Service to provide proof of the Federal Executive Council?s approval for the over N2bn contract awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited.

Salam further reminded the Service that it is required in law to submit a response to the eight queries raised by the Auditor General for the Federation in 2020 and 2021 concerning financial infractions totalling N19.2bn. (The PUNCH)

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