This article highlights some of the Organizations at the top list of
siphoning most of the revenue which should be going into Government's
purse, but rather diverted to private pockets. They're responsible for
Nigeria's low IGR and Foreign revenue annually despite the huge amount
of money coming from crude oil exports and Huge actual Internally
Generated Revenue, most of which the Nigerian Government does not
officially earn. If the Federal Government wants to boost its IGR and
budget expectations, these are the organizations to go after:
1. NNPC
(Their Oga kpata kpata): Records speak for itself, the NNPC doesn't
even know the amount of crude it imports daily. There are possibly over
100 different means which the NNPC uses to siphon government revenue.
From fraudulent subsidy payments to intentional delay of imported
products to incur and accumulate demurrage with shopping companies.
They're mostly responsible for the over $600 billion dollars alleged by
the EFCC to have been stolen from Nigeria since 1999.
2. NPA:
Working for the Nigeria Ports Authority can even be more rewarding than
working for the NNPC. Thousands of illegal deals worth millions of
Naira are settled under the table at the ports on a daily basis.
Government ends up not recording most of these criminal deals. So many
criminal waivers, unrecorded imports, direct cash settlements rather
than legal payment channels, undercharges, auction sales etc.
3. Customs:
customs officials attached to courier agencies target goods coming in
from overseas. Once your package arrives, you'd be expecting the normal
courier charge and taxes, then you hear the bad news; Nigeria customs is
holding your package. They'll usually give you a fictitious extra bill,
citing some flimsy reasons and stipulated policies and conditions which
cannot be found anywhere on their website. Instead of allowing the
goods get to your local courier office, they'll rather invite you to
Lagos and that's when you get desperate because you don't want to travel
all the way to Lagos to collect a package. So you decide to negotiate
and pay. Mode of payment is usually their private accounts or other
means which will not be eventually traced back to them, not government's
purse. Sometimes also, their charges are genuine, but settled through
private channels, So government gets little or nothing from the illegal
transaction.
Their Illegal Operations with The Immigration
Service at Nigeria's borders also ensure that Cars and other goods are
imported into Nigeria illegally with taxes and charges that are never
documented or paid into government's purse.
4. FIRS: this
is another criminal organization in Nigeria.They target multinationals
and big companies, and the richest among them work in Abuja, Lagos, Port
Harcourt and other cities with numerous big companies. They help you
evade tax in so many different ways (evading and avoiding tax are
different things, one is criminal, the other is legal) and collect huge
rewards for their excellent criminal manoevers. Hundreds of billions or
possibly trillions therefore go unrecovered annually.
5. NIMASA:
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency is a regulatory
body saddled with various maritime related responsibilities including
administration and regulation of shipping licenses, carrying out aerial
and coastal surveillance, control and prevention of maritime pollution,
providing maritime security. About 40% of Nigeria's income Is budgeted
for this agency to develop maritime infrastructure and fund the
operations of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria. NIMASA has been involved
with various levels of fraud on many occasions running into Trillions of
naira.
Other Agencies include the Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Road Safety and The Nigeria Police Force.
You may add more and highlight. We want complete reforms so that we may recover our money and develop our infrastructure.
God Bless Nigeria.
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