Why Confab Committee Summoned Customs, NPA, Others

The Public Finance and Revenue Committee at the ongoing National Conference on Tuesday summoned some top government functionaries associated with port operations in Nigeria to give explanations on how their activities were being carried out.

The Committee had invited Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi, comptroller general of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), to appear before it.

The delegates, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek learnt, will probe the effectiveness, efficiency and their relevance of the MDAs, with a view to proffering solutions to the myriad of problems affecting them in order to block all loopholes and wastage.

The committee also summoned top management staff of the Finance Ministry, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to appear before it on Wednesday or Friday this week.

According to the committee, they were invited to explain how the activities of their ministries, departments and agencies were being carried out.

Chairmen of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and top management staff of the Debt Management Office (DMO), National Planning Commission, National Lottery Commission; Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other agencies involved in revenue generation were also summoned by the committee.

Senator Adamu Aliero, chairman of the committee and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, explained that the committee’s secretariat would serve the relevant government agencies notices of summon to enable them appear yesterday.

According to the work schedule, each of the MDAs is allocated only one hour to make its presentation.

During the deliberations, the committee rejected suggestions that questionnaires be sent to the MDAs on the ground that the information that may be returned to them might not tally with the true picture on ground.

The committee members also complained about the short period allocated to them to conclude the assignment.

In his explanation, Chief Sergeant Awuse, a member of the committee and a delegate representing the South-South geo- political zone of the country, who noted that the committees were set up to enable members have direct interaction with the technocrats, however, advised committee members to be cautious of information posted on websites by MDAs.

According to Awuse, in view of time constraint and heavy workload, committee members should make sacrifices and work extra time, including working weekends, to enable them do a thorough job.