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Alleged tax fraud: Senate asks AGF to recover N378m, EFCC to arrest officials

The Senate has exposed how some officials of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) signed an agreement of tax waver with a private firm (Webb Fontaine Ltd), causing the Federal Government N378 million withholding tax loss.

 

Therefore, the upper house of the National Assembly ordered the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to recover the money from the firm and remit it to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

 

The Senate Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide also asked the AGF to hand over the officials involved in the deal to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commis- sion for investigation. Webb Fontaine provides an interface between port authorities, terminal operators and Customs, offering a comprehensive set of features designed for the facilitation of port logistics operations.

 

During the investigation of the 2015 audit report against the AGF, the committee discovered that N3.7 billion was paid to Webb Fountain Ltd without deduction of withholding tax, leading to loss of tax revenue of N378 million to Federal Government.

 

According to the report, the Auditor General for the Federation (AuGF) queried the mandates for payment of service fees in respect of five companies at source before payment, with exception of Webb Fountain Ltd. Part of the query reads: “The sum of N3.7 billion was paid to Webb Fountain Ltd without deduction of withholding tax.

 

“This action led to the loss of tax revenue of N378 million and possibly more companies not covered by sampled test.” However, the representative of the AGF stated that statutorily, by the laws governing the Terms of Agreement of their contract, Webb Fontaine Ltd had been exempted from and not subject to the payment of tax (WHT, VAT).

 

The Senate, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the arbitrary granting of exemption and waivers for payment of taxes to a private company which caused the Federal Government a huge revenue loss.

 

The Senate said the officials who signed the agreement with the firm should be identified and sanctioned for causing loss of revenue and asked the AGF to hand over the officials to the anti-graft agency (EFCC) in line with Rule 31112 .

 

The Senate also said,: “The Accountant General should recover the sum of N378 million from Webb Fountain Ltd and remit it to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). “Recovery particulars should be forwarded to the Auditor General of the Federation for audit.”

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