The Senate has invited the Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami; Accountant General of
the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris; Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman
Dambazau (retd.); and four private companies to appear to explain a
multi-billion naira e-passport production deal.
Also invited are four companies engaged by the Nigeria
Immigration Service in a public private partnership arrangement over the
years.The invitees are to appear before the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Alleged
Misuse, Under Remittance and Other Fraudulent Activities in the Collection,
Remittance and Expenditure of Internally Generated Revenue by Ministries,
Departments and Agencies.
A statement by the
Media Adviser to the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, Mr.
Kayode Odunaro, said they were to appear on April 6, 2017.The statement said
the companies – Contec Nigeria Limited, Greater Washington Nigeria Limited,
Newwork Solution and Investment Limited and Iris Smart Technologies –which were
contracted for e-passport production, expatriate residence permit and alien
card as well as other immigration services, had contractual agreements to
perform some revenue generating services on behalf of the NIS.
It, however, alleged that the companies were “withholding a
hefty percentage of revenue that would have accrued to the Federal Government.”
Adeola, at a sitting by the Senate committee on Thursday,
was said to have invited various public officials and corporate organisations,
following the presentation made by the Comptroller General of the NIS, Mr.
Mohammed Babandede, on the revenue profile of the service “and how various
revenues generated, running into billions of naira and dollars, were shared by
the companies, the NIS and the Federal Government.”
The Chairman of the committee was quoted to have confirmed
from the Immigration boss that the service could now undertake the services
provided by the companies as a way of increasing revenue accruing to the
government.Adeola was quoted as saying, “I am at a loss on why a huge part of
the revenue generated by the NIS continued to be paid to private firms in the
name of PPP, which should actually be based on Build, Operate and Transfer. We
cannot be denying Nigerian people benefits that would accrue to them through
increased revenue to government coffers instead of huge earnings for private
concerns. This is an area that government can generate huge revenue. There is
the need to get clarifications on this issue from all the parties involved.”
Babandede, in his presentation, was quoted to have disclosed
that the reasons for entering into a PPP arrangement by the government was due
to inadequate funding, late release of budgeted sums, multiple acquisition of
travel documents and poor revenue generation.
He added that private partners provided all the funding
while money realised in course of issuing facilities was shared with government
in order to allow private partners recoup their investment.
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